10282015 - News Article - Attorneys file motions in second Soderquist case - Trial scheduled to begin Nov. 9

Attorneys file motions in second Soderquist case 
Trial scheduled to begin Nov. 9
Post-Tribune (IN)
October 28, 2015
http://infoweb.newsbank.com.proxy.portagelibrary.info/resources/doc/nb/news/158C574D9F6FD230?p=AWNB
Attorneys filed a handful of motions for former Lake Station Mayor Keith Soderquist's second public corruption trial, which is scheduled to start in two weeks.

Soderquist, his wife, Deborah Soderquist, and stepdaughter Miranda Brakley are set to go on trial Nov. 9.

Brakley is charged with stealing from the city when she worked there as a court clerk and then lying about that money in her bankruptcy case. Soderquist and his wife are accused of helping Brakley hide her crime.

A federal jury found the Soderquists guilty in September in a separate case and convicted them of using money from his campaign fund and the city's food pantry to pay for dozens of gambling trips to Michigan.

Attorneys for both Soderquist and the federal government appear to agree on at least one issue, with both sides asking in court filings Tuesday that the U.S. District Judge James Moody bar mention of the first trial during the second trial.

Defense attorneys Scott King and Lakeisha Murdaugh noted in their request that the first trial is "irrelevant" to the second case. Federal attorneys argued in their filing that the defense might try to convince the jury that the Soderquists were already convicted.

"Because this is pure jury nullification, the court should order defense counsel not to mention the first trial or its outcome and not request sympathy because his clients were already convicted of numerous federal offenses," the filing says.

However, federal attorneys did say that if the Soderquists testified, they would want to refer to the first trial to go after their credibility.

Federal government attorneys also want Brakley and her attorney, Thomas Vanes, barred from arguing that she has no criminal past and all of the defendants from mentioning what possible sentences they face if convicted.

Attorneys for all of the defendants also filed proposed questions to ask potential jurors, and Vanes filed two instructions he wants read to jurors at the end of the trial.

The instructions focus on whether a city court is part of the rest of the city government and determining whether an agency is part of a larger agency that receives federal funding.

The theft charge against Brakley specifically accuses her of theft from programs receiving federal funds.