Court: Rapist can’t act as own lawyer

MUNCIE – A Muncie man accused of trying to sexually assault a woman nearly three years ago is not competent to act as his own attorney, the Indiana Court of Appeals ruled last week.

Santiago Valdez, now 58, was charged with attempted rape, criminal confinement and intimidation, among other crimes, in April 2012. Authorities said he attacked a female acquaintance in her southside home.

Since then, he has repeatedly asked to serve as his own defense attorney. Last June, Delaware County Court 2 Judge Kimberly Dowling agreed to let him appeal her denial of that request.

The Indiana Court of Appeals on Thursday ruled Dowling “did not clearly err in finding that Valdez suffers from extreme mental illness (and is) not competent to represent himself at trial.”

Mental health professionals who examined the former professional boxer diagnosed him as suffering from schizophrenia or a related illness.

In hundreds of hand-written documents, he has alleged local law enforcement officials are conspiring to kill him by slicing apart his internal organs with electronic rays.

He has “on multiple occasions (offered the judge) food bags containing his excrement, which he asserted would reveal evidence of his subjection to torture,” the appeals court noted. He has also reported being tormented by voices coming from the heating vents in the Delaware County jail.

Dowling has scheduled a hearing for April 16, at which a trial date might be set.

In 1993, Valdez was accused of sexually assaulting a 63-year-old Bloomington woman who had befriended him at a local church.

He insisted on acting as his own attorney in that case, but then refused to attend his trial. A Monroe County jury deliberated for about 15 minutes before finding him guilty of rape and criminal confinement.

Contact news reporter Douglas Walker at (765) 213-5851. You can also follow him on Twitter @DouglasWalkerSP.