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A convict serving a life sentence for killing a Utah corrections officer, has forfeited his right to a court-appointed attorney due to his disruptive and threatening conduct toward multiple lawyers who have been trying to help him with his appeals, the Utah Supreme Court ruled Friday.
Curtis Michael Allgier — a heavily tattooed "white-power skinhead" — had pleaded guilty to shooting and killing Officer Stephen Anderson during a brazen escape attempt in June 2007.
Allgier, now 35, was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole, but lately has been trying to withdraw his guilty plea.
Allgier, however, has not been getting along with his attorneys, who say Allgiers has made threats, and has said that "he knows how to find people outside of prison," according to Friday's Supreme Court ruling.
Allgier, in fact, mailed documents to one of his new attorney's home address, which had never been provided to Allgier.
The ruling was a response to the latest pair of attorneys' request to withdraw from the case.
An earlier set of attorneys had been allowed to withdraw for similar reasons.
Allgier himself filed pro se motions asking for new lawyers.
The high court quoted one of Allgier's motions as an example of his "hostile and threatening ... tone."
In the motion, Allgier referred to his attorneys as "the dumbest ass clowns I've ever had the EXTREME dishonorable displeasure of being forced to know were even somehow on the planet, let alone incompetently and ineffectively misrepresented by[,] and NEVER ... will they have the honor of being in my Aryan GOD presence or having any kind of contact with me period!!"
The Supreme Court acknowledged it was a "drastic measure" to find that a defendant has forfeited his right to counsel.
But the court said Allgier had "repeatedly engaged in extreme dilatory, disruptive and threatening conduct ..."
Allgier may file a pro se motion regarding his current appeal, the high court said.
On June 25, 2007, Anderson, 60, escorted Allgier from the Utah State Prison to a University Hospital medical visit. Without a pair of plastic flex-cuffs to use, Anderson removed Allgier's metal handcuffs so that he could undergo an MRI scan.
Allgier got hold of Anderson's gun and killed him with it.
After the shooting, Allgier stole an SUV from a U. physician outside the clinic. He changed clothes at a girlfriend's home, then led police on a high-speed chase. During the chase, Allgier tried to run over a sheriff's deputy waiting outside his car to disable Allgier's stolen vehicle with a tire ripper.
When a rear tire went flat, Allgier ran into an Arby's restaurant near 1700 South and Redwood Road, where a customer got the gun away from the escapee, who was then arrested by police.
Allgier was free for about 45 minutes.