Rape retrial delayed until May 21

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Updated: January 20, 2012 7:47PM

The jury trial of an East Chicago man charged with rape has been postponed.

Lake Superior Court Judge Thomas Stefaniak Jr. granted a request by defense attorney Jerry Peteet to delay the Feb. 6 trial for Thaddeus Luis Rodriguez, 21.

Rodriguez’s first trial ended in mistrial after Rodriguez was punched in the face by a man also charged in the case.

That man, Hiram Joel Perez-Diaz, has agreed to testify against Rodriguez.

Rodriguez’s new trial is scheduled to begin May 21. He had pleaded not guilty to charges of rape, criminal deviate conduct, robbery, confinement, battery, strangulation and intimidation in a June 12 incident at a Motel 6 in Hammond. Peteet said he plans to depose the victim and other witnesses who testified in the trial.

Deputy prosecutor Michelle Jatkiewicz said the woman gave an earlier deposition with Rodriguez’s prior defense attorney, Lemuel Stigler, and testified at length at trial. She argued that making the woman provide another sworn statement constituted harassment.

Peteet said he and Stigler have different styles in their practice of law.

Peteet also asked the judge to sanction Jatkiewicz, who obtained through a subpoena medical records for Rodriguez from a Nov. 30 incident in which Perez-Diaz, 28, punched Rodriguez in the face outside the courts building at the Lake County Government Center in Crown Point.

Jatkiewicz said she didn’t purposely withhold the records from the defense because she was “running at breakneck speed” with developments during the trial.

Stefaniak said he would take Peteet’s request under advisement to examine further the trial rule Peteet cited against the backdrop of how the mistrial unfolded. Another hearing is set for Feb. 24.

Perez-Diaz has pleaded guilty to assisting a criminal and faces a maximum eight-year sentence.

At the time the case was first tried, Stigler sought to delay the trial. On Dec. 2, the day Stefaniak declared a mistrial, Stigler told the judge his client had been told to go to the emergency room immediately after court and that he would need surgery for his broken nose.

Jatkiewicz is seeking records from the Dec. 2 emergency room visit and any subsequent medical treatment.