Will County judge added to civil rights lawsuit from reckless homicide witness

A former prosecutor who’s now a Will County judge has been named as a defendant in a lawsuit by a key witness in a reckless homicide case that concluded last year with a guilty verdict.

Judge Jeffrey Tuminello was added to the list of defendants in an amended federal lawsuit filed May 17 by Norberto Salvador Navarro, who was an eyewitness in the reckless homicide case against the now-convicted Sean Woulfe.

Navarro’s lawsuit alleged that his constitutional rights were violated when he was kept inside of the Will County jail in 2022 for months in order to testify at Woulfe’s trial.

The trial ended with a deadlocked jury. Woulfe would later plead guilty to the 2017 reckless homicide of Lindsey Schmidt, 29, her unborn child and her three sons, Owen, 6, Weston, 4, and Kaleb, 1. Schmidt and her children were killed in a car crash caused by Woulfe.

Tuminello, who was elected as a circuit court judge last year, was one of the two prosecutors on the Woulfe case.

Navarro’s lawsuit alleged Tuminello collaborated with Will County Sheriff’s Sgt. Paul Rojek and Deputy Steven Adent to have Navarro transferred from the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to the Will County jail early last year.

Rojek, Adent and the Will County Sheriff’s Office are also named as defendants in Navarro’s lawsuit, which was originally filed on March 2.

“Concerned that Navarro would not be available to testify in the criminal case if he was deported before the Will County case went to trial, the prosecutors contacted ICE and requested that Navarro be transferred to Joliet.”

—  Attorney Martin McManaman, in a motion filed in court on behalf of Norberto Salvador Navarro

Navarro’s lawsuit alleged Tuminello and Rojek engaged in communications and assurances with ICE officials that were “in direct violation of the TRUST Act and the Illinois Way Forward Act,” which prevents local governments from working with ICE.

Navarro’s lawsuit alleged Tuminello could have obtained his testimony in the Woulfe trial by certifying him for a U-visa, which allows “an otherwise removable individual to remain in the United States and gain legal status if they agree to cooperate with law enforcement in a criminal prosecution.”

“However, instead of certifying Mr. Navarro for a U-visa, [Tuminello] chose to cooperate with ICE in violation of state law and detain Mr. Navarro without legal authority,” according to Navarro’s lawsuit.

Navarro was in jail on a $1 million material witness bond, which the lawsuit noted was $725,000 higher than the bond for Woulfe, who was facing 16 counts of reckless homicide at his trial.

According to Navarro’s lawsuit, the defendants should have known the material witness bond “was illegal as well.”

“Mr. Navarro was neither detained in an out-of-state penal institution nor was he refusing to testify, the only two circumstances in which a material witness can be detained under Illinois law,” according to the lawsuit.

Attorneys with the international law firm Kilpatrick Townsend and Stockton are representing Tuminello, Rojek, Adent and the sheriff’s office in the case.

One of those attorneys, Martin McManaman, said in a May 31 motion that Judge Dan Rippy issued a valid court order for Navarro’s transfer to Will County custody. His motion said both Rojek and Adent were “acting within the scope” of that court order.

McManaman’s motion noted that Navarro was sentenced to 40 months in prison after he pleaded guilty to smuggling cocaine across the border from Mexico to the U.S. in a federal case in Texas. After completion of that sentence, Navarro was transferred to ICE custody in New Mexico where he was “detained pending removal proceedings.”

“Concerned that Navarro would not be available to testify in the criminal case if he was deported before the Will County case went to trial, the prosecutors contacted ICE and requested that Navarro be transferred to Joliet,” McManaman’s motion said.