Brakley gets 6 months home detention
NWI Times
July 07, 2016
HAMMOND — The stepdaughter of former Lake Station Mayor Keith Soderquist avoided prison Thursday.
Miranda Brakley, 35, of Lake Station, received six months home detention followed by two years probation Thursday for embezzling Lake Station City Court funds.
“Words cannot express my humiliation and remorse,” she told U.S. District Court Judge James Moody.
She admitted Jan. 20 she stole more than $16,000 from the city court where she worked as a clerk between 2008 and 2012. Her position gave her access to bond money traffic offenders deposited with the court to get out of jail following their arrest.
Moody ordered her to pay $664 restitution, in addition to the $15,800 she had previously paid the City of Lake Station.
Her lawyer, Thomas Vanes of Merrillville, said home detention was the most appropriate punishment for Brakley who requires high maintenance medical care for a longstanding gastrointestinal disorder that has required recent surgery and for her to maintain a liquid-only diet.
He stated in a memorandum she is restricted to 64 ounces of liquid a day, she has to constantly monitor her blood sugar and blood pressure, go to twice weekly visited to her physicians for check-ups and treatment and has to receive the rest of her nutrients through monthly intravenous treatments at a hospital.
Her stepfather, former Lake Station Mayor Keith Soderquist, awaits sentencing Sept. 28.
He pleaded guilty to attempting to cover up Brakley’s theft by borrowing from an unidentified friend enough money to replace the missing funds to bolster a cover-up story that Brakley had only misplaced, not stolen, the amount.
A jury last year also found the former mayor and his wife, Deborah Soderquist, guilty of improperly taking thousands of dollars from Keith Soderquist’s re-election campaign fund and the city’s food pantry account to gamble at nearby casinos.
The former mayor, who had served nearly eight years in office, came under state and federal scrutiny four years ago after former Lake Station City Judge Christopher A. Anderson discovered Brakley stole money that those arrested in Lake Station posted to get out of jail.
Anderson left the bench last year, ran for Lake Station mayor and defeated Soderquist and a Republican opponent.
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