Lake Station Mayor continues testimony at federal criminal trial
Post-Tribune
September 10, 2015 - 7:05 PM
Lake Station Mayor Keith Soderquist, during testimony at his federal corruption trial Thursday, blamed his own procrastination for not listing on his campaign's financial records all the money and services he claims his political operation owed him.
Soderquist took the stand in his defense for the second day in a row, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Philip Benson grilled the mayor, accused of raiding his campaign coffers to fund his gambling habit, on his campaign finance reports. Benson also had the mayor read aloud for the court a statement just above the signature lines on all of his campaign finance reports vouching for their truth and accuracy.
"It was an error," Soderquist said.
"It was an error you created, and you knew it," Benson shot back.
The mayor and his wife are accused of using money from the campaign and the city's food pantry to pay for more than 50 gambling trips, mostly to the Four Winds Casino in New Buffalo, Michigan.
Soderquist admitted Wednesday he did this "a few times" but that in his mind it was OK because he loaned money to both that had never been paid back. However, he also acknowledged he did not keep track, other than in his head, of how much he was for mileage.
Benson on Thursday directed Soderquist through most of the 16 ATM withdrawals from the food pantry's account that were made within 24 hours of when activity was shown on Soderquist's member card at Four Winds that tracks gambling activity. The mayor said he would have been the one to use the card at those times.
"My card was being used, I assume it was me," he said.
Soderquist insisted he never meant to defraud either the food pantry or people who had donated to his campaign.
"Never," he said.
The mayor also testified that he and his wife often made runs to pick up food for the food pantry and were never reimbursed for their mileage, sometimes as many as 25 to 30 trips a month.
Other testimony and evidence focused on just how much money the Soderquists actually loaned the campaign and how much they were owed.
Steve Martinez, an IRS criminal investigator who testified for the government and was brought back by the defense, told the jury that he had not considered any loans or expenses the Soderquists had made to his campaign when he ran for City Council in 1999 and 2003 when coming up with the $16,908 that the IRS considers unaccounted withdrawals from the campaign's account. Martinez, however, said that he understood Soderquist had created a new campaign committee to run his mayoral race, which meant that any debts owed by his city council campaign did not carry over to the new committee.
Donald Smith, a certified public accountant from Lowell, testified that from the records the Soderquists gave him, the campaign owed them about $2,500, including debts from his city council races and assuming that all ATM withdrawals were not campaign expenses.
However, he told Benson under cross examination that he had not seen four checks totaling $3,000 from the campaign fund paid to Deborah Soderquist that have notes about paying back loans.
Smith testified that when he came up with the amount still owed to the Soderquists, he did so by relying on receipts they submitted to him and then going through some of them with the couple to have them explain their purpose.
"I had a level of satisfaction that I could trust them," he said.
The trial was delayed for about 20 minutes after lunch when U.S. District Judge Rudy Lozano held a sealed hearing with the attorneys in the case. King asked to make a motion in the judge's chambers.
King said earlier in the day that he expected Smith to be the defense's last witness. The trial is expected to continue Friday.
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