Lake Station mayor testifies, says campaign, food pantry owed him money
Lake Station mayor says he procrastinated on amending campaign finance reports
Post-Tribune
September 09, 2015 - 7:12 PM
September 09, 2015 - 7:12 PM
Taking the stand Wednesday afternoon, Lake Station Mayor Keith Soderquist admitted withdrawing money from his campaign fund and the city's food pantry to gamble.
"I have done that," the mayor testified during his trial at U.S. District Court in Hammond.
However, he defended his actions, saying both his campaign and the food pantry owed him money.
"That money was mine because (the campaign) owed me that," he said. "It was very clear, and I'm very clear on that today."
He also testified that he did this only a few times.
Federal attorneys have accused Soderquist and his wife, Deborah Soderquist, of embezzling the money to pay for more than 50 gambling trips to local casinos, mainly Four Winds in New Buffalo, Mich., over the past several years. The government claims the campaign and food pantry did not owe Soderquist the money.
He disputed that during his testimony, however, telling the jury that he allowed food pantry volunteers to use his personal truck several times a week to pick up food and that he had occasionally paid volunteers from his own pocket to reimburse them for their gas costs.
He also claimed he and his wife had donated money and various services — including their Internet, phone line and mileage — to his campaigns since he first ran in 1999.
However, Soderquist admitted he never kept an official record of these expenses.
"I felt a little guilty charging my committee what was owed to me," he said. "I didn't need to be reimbursed at the time."
Instead, Soderquist claimed, he tried to keep an idea in his head as to how much mileage he had racked up for both the campaign and the pantry.
The mayor also started going to the casinos more often, he testified, as a way to relax away from the pressing concerns of his constituents.
"We do need a private life on occasion," he said, adding that he usually gambled at the penny slots.
Circumstances changed for the mayor when he lost his private-sector job, which had paid in the range of $80,000, soon after the September 2008 flood that hit the city. Soderquist said he and his wife looked at how they could consolidate their debts, which included stopping payments on their various credit cards so that they could negotiate lower rates and withdrawing money from his retirement and life savings accounts.
He also looked to who owed him money, which Soderquist said included the food pantry and his campaign.
"I felt that was perfectly fine," he said of withdrawing money from the accounts through an ATM card.
Despite his financial problems, the mayor said, he and his wife started going to the casinos even more and gambling more.
He made it a point to never withdraw money at the casino, however, stating that he knew people would have a negative perception of it, the mayor said.
Soderquist also admitted he never amended his campaign finance reports to show these withdrawals, saying he procrastinated.
"Eventually I would get to it," he said of his thought process.
He added that he had asked Lake County about it, but that he got the impression the elections board was lax about making amendments.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Philip Benson grilled him during cross examination about the reports, asking him whether he knew that he was supposed to fill out the finance reports accurately and completely.
"You knew you had to put the loans on the (form), right?" Benson asked.
"I was aware any expenses had to be on the report," Soderquist replied.
Federal attorneys closed their case earlier in the day after more than four days of testimony. Other defense witnesses included Michael Del Toro, director of solid waste for the city, who testified about helping out at the city's food pantry. Del Toro told the jury that he saw Deborah Soderquist, who ran the food pantry, pay one volunteer in gas several times for mileage reimbursement and that he also saw her give the volunteer the food pantry's debit card so he could buy food from various grocery stores.
Councilman Todd Rogers testified about going to Four Winds with the Soderquists about four times a year for dinner. They didn't gamble together, however, because Rogers thought the mayor was bad luck, he said.
Councilman Todd Lara told the jury he went to a casino with the Soderquists once.
The trial has already gone past the original estimate of four to five days, and U.S. District Judge Rudy Lozano admonished both sides Wednesday afternoon not to drag the trial out any more. He told the jury he wants to get the case finished this week. The trial is expected to continue Thursday.
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