INDIANAPOLIS — A black man facing charges after he accused two white men of assaulting him will no longer be allowed to have a public defender represent him in court.
The rule is you only get a public defender if you can’t afford to hire your own lawyer.
Vauhxx Booker requested and was granted a public defender after he was charged with battery related to a fight at Lake Monroe last year. But, over $35,000 dollars has been raised for him in a GoFundMe for costs related to the case.
Because of that, the judge has revoked his public defender which means Booker will have to either represent himself in the case or hire his own lawyer.
Booker is charged with felony battery because of an altercation with two white men at Lake Monroe in July of 2020. He accused the men of a hate crime against him, but prosecutors instead filed battery charges against Booker in the incident.
The two men he fought with are also charged with felony battery, but the FBI has not filed hate crime charges after looking over the evidence.
The aforementioned GoFundMe was started on behalf of Booker to cover medical costs related to the incident, attorney fees, and lost work time because of the proceedings.
On Nov. 1 Booker was granted a public defender, at the cost of taxpayers, in the case against him, but just over a week later when Judge Lance Hamner learned of the funds raised for Booker, he rescinded Booker’s public defender. Hamner said Booker does not meet the definition of “indigency”.
