Sentencing for Soderquist, wife reset for September
NWI Times
Jun 24, 2016
HAMMOND — Former Lake Station Mayor Keith Soderquist and his wife, Deborah, will be sentenced Sept. 28 for improperly taking money from his re-election campaign fund and the city’s food pantry account to gamble at casinos.
U.S. District Judge Rudy Lozano on Friday granted a joint motion filed by the Soderquists’ attorneys and the U.S. attorney’s office to postpone the couple’s sentencing for 60 days because “additional investigative matters” had come to light.
The sentencing previously had been set for July 13.
A joint motion to delay a second sentencing hearing July 13 for Soderquist and his stepdaughter Miranda Brakley because of “additional investigative matters” remains pending before Senior Judge James Moody.
Soderquist and Brakley admitted in a change of plea hearing in January that she embezzled about $16,000 from Lake Station City Court while she was employed there as a clerk and he tried to cover it up.
In a separate case, a jury found the former mayor and his wife guilty Sept. 11 of improperly using his campaign funds and the city’s food pantry account to gamble.
Officials said this month a special prosecutor is taking over a state police investigation into the suspected concealment of traffic convictions in Lake Station City Court.
LaPorte County Prosecutor John M. Espar accepted a request by state police to help determine whether a number of drunken driving and other traffic cases were improperly handled between 2008 and 2012, according to the Lake County prosecutor’s office.
Brakley was employed in the City Court during that time period. Her attorney, Thomas Vanes, has said suspicion of his client is unwarranted.
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