Lake County Judge Natalie Bokota hit the reset button — abruptly canceling Garrett Whittenburg’s bench trial Monday after his lawyer provided documents his client filed a complaint against her, various lawyers and correctional officers in federal court in February.
Whittenburg, 42, of Chicago is charged as an accomplice in a November 2021 Hammond home invasion.
The case has been pending for 3 ½ years. After years of court filings, including competency evaluations, defense lawyer Aaron Koonce’s bid for a mental health placement for Whittenburg was denied in October.
Bokota recused herself Monday and transferred the case to Judge Salvador Vasquez, filings show. She granted a lawyer’s ask to withdraw from the case.
Federal court filings show Whittenburg filed a nearly 40-page handwritten pro se complaint — meaning without a lawyer — on Feb. 27 against nearly a dozen people, including Bokota; Koonce; former Deputy Prosecutor Nadia Wardrip, now an Assistant U.S. Attorney; Deputy Prosecutor Arturo Balcazar; Chief Public Defender William Padula; and various Lake County Jail correctional officers.
Both Bokota and Balcazar’s names are misspelled. Toward the end, Whittenburg appears to accuse Bokota of letting prosecutors and Koonce — his public defender — of “violating” his former plea agreement. He also writes the case was “draining me financially.”
U.S. District Judge Gretchen Lund denied on May 2 Whittenburg’s bid to waive his fees. He has to pay a $400 filing fee by June 2, or the federal complaint will get dismissed, filings show.
County prosecutors offered Whittenburg another plea deal Thursday, for up to 30 years, if he pleaded guilty to rape. He appeared to reject it.
Co-defendant Valentine Torrez initially told police he was a victim, too, on Nov. 13, 2021, when a masked man — i.e. Whittenburg — entered his relative’s unlocked door in Hammond, blindfolded, then sexually assaulted her and the woman’s 12-year-old daughter.
Prosecutors alleged Torrez helped plan the home invasion with Whittenburg to assault the female relative and take her credit cards.
Torrez is serving 33 years after he was convicted in May 2024 of rape, a Level 3 felony; child molesting; and criminal confinement — about half his charges. The Indiana Court of Appeals rejected his bid to throw out part of his conviction last week.