Lake County Indiana Prosecutor Edgar Rodriguez Caught Suborning Perjury from Highland Police Officer Lee Natelborg

STATE OF INDIANA    )                IN THE SUPERIOR COURT

                                   )  SS:

COUNTY OF LAKE      )                  CASE NO. 45D12-1203-CM-00369

                                  )                                              

IN THE MATTER OF THE PETITION TO               )                      

EXPUNGE ARREST RECORDS OF                      )                        

                        )                      

                        )                      

JOSEPH ZRNCHIK      )           JUDGE: JESSE M. VILLALPANDO

 Petitioner.                   )

MOTION TO DISQUALIFY

Comes now the Petitioner and moves the Court to grant this Motion to Disqualify Deputy Prosecutor Edgar Rodriguez and assign a Special Prosecutor and in support of said motion states:

1.  Deputy Prosecutor Edgar Rodriguez suborned perjury from Officer Lee Natelborg by completely drafting a false and perjurous Probable Cause Affidavit devoid of any legal or factual basis for which Petitioner can demonstrate to the Court that this false charge involves misconduct, perjury, the subornment of perjury, false police reporting and malicious prosecution.  Officer Lee Natelborg admitted in his sworn deposition that he signed the Probable Cause Affidavit that Edgar Rodriguez had written for him months after the arrest incident thinking it was okay to commit perjury so long as he had Deputy Prosecutor Rodriguez’s consent and support.  Petitioner would like the opportunity to show the Court why, how and where this Probable Cause Affidavit contains perjury and involves the subornment of perjury and why Prosecutor Edgar Rodriguez is culpable for criminal wrongdoing.

2.  As there was no act even remotely cited in any way whatsoever in the Police Incident Report, nor in Officer Lee Natelborg’s initial Probable Cause Affidavit, nor in the Police Information, nor in Officer Natelborg’s sworn deposition, Petitioner alleges and believes he can easily prove perjury and the subornment of perjury by Deputy Prosecutor Edgar Rodriguez and therefore will need to examine Prosecutor Edgar Rodriguez to understand why and how on God’s green earth Prosecutor Edgar Rodriguez came to bring false charges completely unjustified and contradicted by the Highland Police Department’s own police officers when the initial police report clearly states, “subject was taken into custody and transported without incident”.  These false charges were brought by Deputy Prosecutor Edgar Rodriguez to coerce a pleas agreement from an innocent citizen.  By Deputy Prosecutor Edgar Rodriguez’s own admission no crime was committed and withdrew the false charges when it became clear he could not coerce a guilty plea.  His motion to dismiss the charges was made to hide his misconduct from the Court and not done in the interest of justice.

3.  Not only is this incident the subornment of perjury in which false reports and affidavits were filed, but Petitioner also alleges Official Misconduct on the part of Officer Lee Natelborg and Deputy Prosecutor Edgar Rodriguez.  Since Deputy Prosecutor Edgar Rodriguez decided to draft a Probable Cause Affidavit seeking Officer Lee Natelborg’s signature, which Officer Lee Natelborg admitted in his sworn deposition, and for which Officer Lee Natelborg should have known better than signing as being the one who cited all the law enforcement training he had received, it is clear this was an intentional criminal act to intimidate and coerce Petitioner into a plea agreement so desperately sought by Deputy Prosecutor Edgar Rodriguez for a malicious prosecution that he knew could never even be brought to this Court as it was so baseless as to be criminal, and in fact involved criminality.  As the time for trial drew near, Deputy Prosecutor Rodriguez became more and more desperate almost begging for a plea agreement that provided no punishment while still acting as if he wanted to bring all these false charges to trial. 

4.  Furthermore, Petitioner also alleges that this subornment of perjury is a criminal conspiracy engaged in by Deputy Prosecutor Edgar Rodriguez and Highland Police Officer Lee Natelborg.  This is a criminal act in which both parties worked towards the same criminal goal, albeit under the color of law, for which petitioner seeks to conduct examination and cross-examination as both Officer Lee Natelborg and Deputy Prosecutor Edgar Rodriguez will assuredly try to lie to the Court claiming ignorance, incompetence, and simple misunderstandings.  Their initial prosecution and false charges were made to fool the Court and deny Petitioner justice.  Petitioner believes that upon testimony of both Officer Lee Natelborg and Deputy Prosecutor Edgar Rodriguez, Petitioner will have the evidence he needs to submit a complaint, backed by evidence, to the Indiana Bar Association against Deputy Prosecutor Edgar Rodriguez for Perjury, Official Misconduct, Subornment of Perjury and Criminal Conspiracy.  Petitioner also believes he will have a basis for the prosecution of Perjury, Filing False Police Reports, Official Misconduct and Obstruction of Justice charges against Officer Lee Natelborg.  Petitioner asserts that anyone with an IQ of 50 can see that Officer Lee Natelborg will claim he didn’t know any better, all the while being eager and willing to bring what would have been a false prosecution based on police perjury.  It was not that Officer Natelborg was not smart enough to know what he was doing and that it was illegal, he just wasn’t smart enough to carry out a malicious prosecution based on false charges and get away with his perjury while also covering the perjury of Deputy Prosecutor Edgar Rodriguez.  Now Officer Lee Natelborg will want to claim his a lack of intellectual capacity to carry out a criminal act is merely a sign of simple incompetence in the fulfilling obligations as part of the performance of his duties.  Petitioner is sure Prosecutor Rodriguez will also try some version of this same defense as he claims prosecutorial immunity, but this immunity was not meant to cover the criminal acts of police or prosecutors who claim to know the law.

5.  Once Deputy Prosecutor Edgar Rodriguez decided to suborn perjury by writing false, meritless, and legally baseless Probable Cause Affidavit himself for which he then sought signature, one that was devoid of even a single description of any act, fact or issue of law for bringing the Charge of Resisting Law Enforcement based on the contents of Officer Lee Netelborg’s initial Probable Cause Affidaivt, Police Incident Report and Police Information, he made himself subject to examination as to why and how he could draft such a false and Perjurous Probable Cause Affidavit for Resisting Arrest when the police report clearly states “suspect was taken into custody and transported without incident”.  Moreover, to protect this crime Deputy Prosecutor Edgar Rodriguez has committed, he will try to hide behind his position, an unethical act impregnated with conflict of interest, abuse of office and additional misconduct thereby casting aspersions upon this Court and the entire legal process.  It is clear that Deputy Prosecutor Edgar Rodriguez has the power to intimidate a police officer so lacking in competence and ethical character that someone of Officer Lee Natelborg’s caliber would attempt to curry favor with a state functionary responsible for prosecuting Officer Natelborg’s false charges and excusing his perjury.  It is clear that both Deputy Prosecutor Edgar Rodriguez and Officer Lee Natelborg should have to answer for their actions as Petitioner’s rights were substantially restricted and he was made the victim of what amounts to criminal acts that violate the U.S. Constitution, Petitioner’s civil rights and Indiana criminal law.  Petitioner asks the Court to be as diligent in the hearing of this petition as it was in the State’s malicious prosecution of Petitioner and in granting an Order of Protection that had already proved to be based on lies and perjury in Judge Tavitas’s court thereby resulting in her refusing to grant said order.   Yet, when Petitioner brought this up to the Court, Petitioner was threatened with arrest because the Court only wanted to hear Deputy Prosecutor Edgar Rodriguez’s version of events that were based on lies, false charges, official misconduct and provable perjury.  Petitioner now invites the Court to hear the truth based on the Prosecution’s own “evidence” as hindsight and depositions have provided clear evidence of police and prosecutorial crimes.

6.  Given that Deputy Prosecutor Edgar Rodriguez himself withdrew the prosecution, as he was doing Petitioner no favor but was saving himself the embarrassment of such an obviously ridiculous, malicious, criminal and incompetent prosecution that would have easily been destroyed and would have exposed perjury, he will now try to hide his criminal acts by attempting to get the Court to deny Petitioner’s Expungement so that his misdeeds will not be brought to light.  Deputy Prosecutor Edgar Rodriguez continued with his false charge until Officer Lee Natelborg admitted he signed the Probable Cause Affidavit by Deputy Prosecutor Edgar Rodriguez because, as his deposition attests, he could not cite any act committed by Petitioner, nor could Officer Lee Natelborg name one profane word used by Petitioner, nor could he cite one phrase in which a profane word was uttered. Furthermore, what could be the basis of opposing an expungement for which the Deputy Prosecutor himself filed a Motion to Dismiss and cited points and authorities as to why the crimes were not committed?  Petitioner asserts that once Deputy Prosecutor Edgar Rodriguez realized his time was running out for being able to hide his crimes and Petitioner would finally have the opportunity to expose the crimes committed by both Deputy Prosecutor Edgar Rodriguez and Officer Lee Natelborg in bringing this prosecution, Deputy Prosecutor Edgar Rodriguez had absolutely no choice but to drop all charges. 

7.  It is in the interest of justice that Officer Lee Natelborg and Deputy Prosecutor Edgar Rodriguez both be required to testify and have their testimony made part of this cause of action.  Petitioner argues that if there was one single basis for bringing a Resisting Law Enforcement, then Deputy Prosecutor Edgar Rodriguez should have no problem citing it seeing how he is a Deputy Prosecutor for Lake County and an attorney licensed by the Indiana Bar Association.  Since Officer Lee Natelborg admitted in sworn deposition that Deputy Prosecutor Edgar Rodriguez wrote and sought signature for a false charge that is without any corroborating evidence in fact or law, but is in fact contradicted by reports from the Highland Police themselves, the only one who can answer why the Resisting Law Enforcement charge was brought is Deputy Prosecutor Edgar Rodriguez himself, as Officer Lee Natelborg admitted he “did not want to mess with that charge” and merely signed it because of Deputy Prosecutor Edgar Rodriguez sent it to him.  It should be noted that even if Petitioner did exactly what Officer Lee Natelborg said he did, this does not justify a Resisting Law Enforcement charge and Deputy Prosecutor Edgar Rodriguez and Officer Lee Natelborg both knew this.  In this instance both want to rely on stupidity as a defense so as to blame this misdeed on the other. The fact is that Deputy Prosecutor Edgar Rodriguez will not be able to explain to this Court what action by Petitioner necessitated the Charge of Resisting Law Enforcement, why he wrote the aforementioned Probable Cause Affidavit, nor will he be able to explain how or why he brought these false charges while suborning perjury without exposing his misconduct. Petitioner asks the Court to not allow him to hide his illegal acts behind his position as Deputy Prosecutor.

Wherefore Petitioner prays the Court to grant this motion to allow necessary evidence, or in the interest of justice, grant Petitioner summary judgment in the expungement of his arrest record. 

Dated:  __________________     Signed:  ______________________________

                                                                        Joseph Zrnchik, Pro Se

                                                                        9306 Saric Drive

                                                                        Highland, IN 46322