How journalists and the court are navigating media coverage of the Delphi trial

For over two weeks now, a dozen people or more have gathered almost every morning along the north side of the Carroll County Courthouse, bundled in coats and sweatshirts, waiting to get inside.

Most of them are traditional media reporters, bloggers, podcasters or YouTubers anxious to get a seat inside the courtroom where Richard Allen is standing trial for the murders of 14-year-old Liberty German and 13-year-old Abigail Williams.

The teenagers were found dead, their throats slashed, near the Monon High Bridge Trail in Delphi one day after they had gone for a hike on an unseasonably warm day in February 2017.

The case has garnered international attention ever since the crime occurred, but it took investigators more than five years to make an arrest.

And now Allen, who was a local pharmacy technician, is standing trial just a few miles from where the girls went missing, in front of a full courtroom of family, attorneys, and the media for the month-
long proceedings.

Apart from the details of the case itself, members of the local and national media have paid particular attention to how the judge in the case, Allen Superior Court Judge Frances Gull, would allow them to cover the trial.

Hopes had been high among many news outlets that the judge would take advantage of new judicial conduct rules approved last year that for the first time let local judges in Indiana allow still and video cameras in their courtrooms to capture the proceedings.

Ultimately, though, the judge decided to ban cameras and all electronic devices – including laptops, cell phones and smart watches – from the courtroom.

An incident involving what the judge called “unauthorized” filming during a pretrial hearing last year apparently contributed to the decision. “The court has lost confidence in the ability of the media to cover hearings appropriately,” Gull wrote at the time.

But, now, even the use of cameras outside the courthouse can cause a stir.

Drama outside the courtroom

On the opening day of the trial on Oct. 18, tensions between the court and the media rose when sheriff’s deputies confiscated the cameras of four photojournalists who the officers believed were taking photos of jurors as they arrived outside the courthouse.

Such photographs were specifically forbidden in decorum orders the judge issued in advance of the trial.

Findings issued by the court on the day of confiscation said officers immediately found images of jurors on the camcorder of NBC’s Eric Arnold. The order did not explicitly say that the cameras of the other journalists contained images of jurors, but it banned all four from future proceedings and said they all had violated the court’s decorum orders.

In an interview with IndyStar, Gannett photographer Alex Martin insisted that he did not take any photos of jurors. He said his camera equipment was confiscated anyway.

The other photographers – Mike Conroy of the Associated Press and Ryan Delaney – either declined to comment or could not be reached by Indiana Lawyer.

The court reported on Oct. 21 that it had returned the confiscated cameras to the three photographers who retained an attorney and was working to return equipment to the fourth one. The court noted that it had removed the camera memory cards to delete any juror images.

Dave Arland, a spokesman for the Indiana Broadcasters Association, said in an email that the group was “very concerned” about the issue because its members were covering the trial. But he added that there would be “plenty of time after the trial to determine what should have been done differently.”

The Indiana Professional Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists declined to comment on the situation “out of respect for the process and all the journalists involved,” chapter president Lisa Renze said in a text.

Gull has made it clear in her decorum order that she and her court staff would not be responding to any requests for interviews on any issue while the trial is underway.

But several judges and judicial officers not involved in the case said Gull had little choice but to take swift action once she learned that images of the jurors had been taken by the media.

They said Gull has a duty to provide a fair trial for the defendant and protect the privacy of the jurors during the trial so they can concentrate on their work.

Consequently, the images needed to be destroyed immediately. But judges probably would vary on whether to ban the journalists, the judicial officers added, depending on whether the captured images were an inadvertent or purposeful violation.

“I can see both sides honestly,” said David Dreyer, a former Marion Superior Court judge. “Some people would say, well, the remedy shouldn’t have been quite that extreme. But I think at the very least you’ve got to get rid of those photos somehow, and I don’t know how to do that otherwise.”

Other judicial officers privately shared similar sentiments with IL.

Dreyer pointed to the rape trial of boxer Mike Tyson in Indianapolis in 1992 as an example of the pressures jurors can face if their identities become known.

Immediately after the trial ended, a photo was taken of some jurors, which wasn’t prohibited. From that photo, some jurors were identified and started receiving threats and having random people show up at their door. Authorities had to provide them with police protection for a while.

“So there’s a real security/privacy issue about jurors, especially in high-profile cases,” Dreyer said.

Inside the courtroom

Media coverage inside the Delphi courtroom has moved on without incident, with the trial drawing reporters from London, NBC’s Dateline and other national networks.

The courtroom ban on electronic devices has caused reporters to resort to old-fashioned pen and paper to report on the trial, and they have set up a coalition to provide “pool coverage” that designates one or two journalists each day to share their notes with others covering the proceedings so no critical detail is missed.

The judge has set aside 12 courtroom seats for the media. A drawing is held by the media coalition to determine who will get those seats each day and who among them will be the “pool” reporters.

Journalists who don’t make the list end up among those who have to line up outside the courthouse each morning in hopes of landing one of the seats set aside for the public.

Before entering the courtroom, reporters drop off their cell phones at the security office to abide by the court rules and to keep the phones close by in case they need to run out and report to their editors any new revelations.

Laura Collins, chief investigative reporter for The Daily Mail of London, said the lack of electronic devices in the courtroom has made the eyes and ears of journalists even more important.

“The fact that it’s not live streaming constantly means our reports are kind of vital because they really are the only way the narrative is getting out there,” she said.

The Daily Mail has been covering the case since the victims were found. Collins said she was motivated to cover the case because it resonates with her and her audience.

“Two girls doing something as innocent as going for a walk on a country trail, and they disappear,” she said. “And the fact that it threw the town into complete disarray and really impacted everyone, that reverberated.”

The courtroom’s media seats are reserved for “recognized media organizations” according to the court’s decorum order, meaning podcasters and YouTubers have to arrive early each day to vie with the public for other seats in the courtroom.

Journalist Aine Cain and attorney Kevin Greenlee, hosts of the podcast, “The Murder Sheet,” have been following the case since early 2020, before Allen was charged with the crime.

The two said they wanted to cover the case because they feel it resonates with Hoosiers across the state.

“Everybody feels this could’ve been their family,” Cain said.

Together, they’ve released over 50 episodes on the case this year alone, dissecting court filings and summarizing each day of jury selection and the trial.

That work will continue for all of the journalists for the duration of the trial, which could last until Nov. 15.•