Lake Station mayor's corruption trial to start Monday
Post-Tribune
August 28, 2015 - 10:50 AM
Lake Station mayor's corruption trial expected to last four to five days
Lake Station Mayor Keith Soderquist will join a long list of Lake County politicians Monday as he goes on trial on public corruption charges.
The trial will start with jury selection after Soderquist and his wife, Deborah Soderquist, were charged in April 2014 in the U.S. District Court in Hammond with using money from his campaign's re-election committee and the Lake Station Food Pantry to fund dozens of trips to a casino. Federal attorneys have charged them both with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, seven counts of wire fraud and three counts of lying on their income tax returns.
Both have pled not guilty in the case.
According to court records, the trial is expected to last four to five days. Attorneys for the Soderquists could not be reached for comment.
U.S. District Judge Rudy Lozano said during a hearing Tuesday that he expects the trial to start around 8:30 a.m. and last until about 5 p.m. each day.
Federal attorneys in the case have said they'll present evidence that the Soderquists withdrew money from his campaign committee and food bank accounts at ATMs within 24 hours of making visits to local casinos. They also claim the couple lost more than $100,000 at the casinos during the past few years and had already taken more than $30,000 out of retirement accounts.
No matter the outcome of the trial, Soderquist will not be in office for much longer. He lost his bid for another term in office to challenger former Lake Station Judge Christopher Anderson in the primary election in May.
Soderquist will be the first Lake County elected official to go to trial since former Lake County Coroner Thomas Philpot did in 2012, when a jury convicted him of paying himself money meant for other county employees. However, several other politicians have been charged and pled guilty in between, including then-Lake County Surveyor George Van Til, who's serving an 18-month prison sentence after admitting he used his office and employees to help run his re-election campaigns, and Marilyn Krusas, the former Gary City Councilwoman who admitted she tried to hide money from the IRS after not filing an income tax return for two decades. She has since been released from prison, as has Philpot.
Other Lake County officials have also seen their public careers ended in the past decade from federal charges, including then-East Chicago Mayor George Pabey, who a federal jury convicted of using city employees and money to renovate a house he bought in Gary, and then-Calumet Township Trustee Dozier Allen Jr., who was convicted of taking money from a state grant that was supposed to pay a contractor.
The only other open case against a Lake County politician is the indictment against former Calumet Township Trustee Mary Elgin, who followed Allen in the seat, on various charges, including using her office and employees to run her re-election campaigns and trying to get a kickback from a vendor. She has pled not guilty in her case and is awaiting trial.
Soderquist stands out from these former politicians in that he's charged in two separate cases. The second case, which is set to go to trial in November, accuses his stepdaughter, Miranda Brakley, of stealing money from Lake Station when she worked there as a court clerk. Soderquist and his wife are accused of helping her. All three have also pled not guilty in that case.
No comments:
Post a Comment