Fed attorneys say cell phone records put Lake Station mayor at ATMs, casino
Post-Tribune
August 25, 2015 - 3:15 PM
Federal attorneys continue to outline evidence they'll use next week during Lake Station Mayor Keith Soderquist's criminal trial, including cell phone data that supposedly connects visits at ATMs and his trips to a nearby casino.
Soderquist and his wife, Deborah Soderquist, are accused of using money from his campaign re-election committee and from the Lake Station Food Pantry to pay for numerous gambling trips to the Four Winds Casino in New Buffalo, Mich.
According to a notice filed Monday in the U.S. District Court in Hammond, the government plans on calling FBI Special Agent Robert Moledor as an expert witness. His testimony is expected to focus on the Soderquists' cell phone data that shows they visited ATMs shortly before they could be found at the casino.
In the notice, the government also says they might call a second expert witness, IRS Forensic Examiner Larry Olsen, during rebuttal if needed. The notice says he would testify on ink and pressure analysis regarding whether unidentified documents were produced later than they appear to have been created.
U.S. District Judge Rudy Lozano also granted during a hearing Tuesday morning most of the government's request to bar defense attorneys Scott King and Lakeisha Murdaugh from asking questions that could elicit sympathy from the jurors, such as asking the defendants about their health and mentioning what penalties they face if convicted.
The trial is set to start Monday and is expected to last four to five days. The Soderquists are charged with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, seven counts of wire fraud and three counts of filing a false tax return.
They're also both charged in a separate case involving Deborah Soderquist's daughter Miranda Brakley, who is accused of stealing money from the city when she worked there as a court clerk. That trial will start in November.
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