Accused killer Curtis Allgier wants new attorneys

SALT LAKE CITY -- Curtis Allgier wants someone he can trust.

The tattoo-laden man has been in jail since June 2007 awaiting trial on various charges including aggravated murder, aggravated escape, aggravated robbery and three counts of aggravated attempted murder -- all first-degree felonies -- in connection with the slaying of corrections officer Stephen Anderson.

On Wednesday, he appeared in court on his third motion to have his attorneys dismissed, citing what his attorneys characterized in court documents as "an irretrievably broken relationship."

Third District Judge Paul Maughan, who insisted last year that a trial be scheduled and carried out unless he was "dead or in a hospital," tried to get Allgier to elaborate on the issues he has.

"Well, for one thing, I'm in large part not able to keep in touch (with attorneys) because of the jail," he said before ticking off a laundry list of issues he has from jail officials taping all of his meetings with attorneys to reading his legal mail. "That's before anything, so, no. I can't get past that."

Defense attorney Ralph Dellapiana said he can attest to the treatment. Allgier went on to say that he feels his attorneys should be able to keep the jail from treating him that way.

"Explain to me how I can trust someone who can't protect my rights when my life is on the line," Allgier asked the judge.

Maughan told the man such conduct could be an issue regardless of who his attorney is, leading Allgier to ask the judge to have him housed elsewhere.

"If you leave me in Salt Lake County Jail, God could represent me and it's not going to change," he said.

He said he has an inherent problem with being represented by attorneys from the county's Legal Defender's Association, as many of them knew Anderson and counted him as a "close, personal friend."

"I've had conflict and trust issues since the very first day," he said. "From the beginning we've had a conflict and more and more keep coming."

The most recent issue is a statement which ran in an article in the Salt Lake Tribune from a Salt Lake County jail captain who apparently said Allgier's attorneys went to jail officials and "asked for security in their meetings with Mr. Allgier after he allegedly made threats on his own attorneys' lives." Corrections Bureau Chief Deputy Rollin Cook declined to state whether it was Allgier's current attorneys who made the request.

Dellapiana was adamant after the hearing that neither he nor any of Allgier's other attorneys said such a thing to jail officials.

"I haven't ever felt threatened and I don't currently feel threatened," he said. "Under the current circumstances, it's extremely difficult because of the problems raised in this conflict. He presently doesn't trust us to represent him."

Allgier said he wanted to make it clear that the request for new attorneys, which, by all accounts, would most likely lead to "substantial delays," was not his doing.

"This conflict is not of my making," he said. "I've tried repeatedly to get past these issues, but they keep arising. I didn't make them. All the state's got to do is stop trying to kill me and we'd be done today."

Prosecutor Vincent Meister said if what Allgier and his attorneys are stating is true, then "it could create a conflict."

"The truth is his perception," Meister said. "He perceives there is a conflict and it's that perception that's keeping him from meeting with his attorneys."

And that perception may lead Maughan to determine Allgier needs a new defense team, one that will not only have to be qualified to handle death penalty cases, but can be contracted by the county outside of the Legal Defender's Association.

"The question is the perception in Curtis' mind of whether he can trust us or not," defense attorney David Mack said.

Maughan decided to take the issue under advisement.

E-mail: emorgan@desnews.com

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