07082016 - News Article - No prison for Brakley - Stepdaughter of ex-Lake Station mayor gets home detention in corruption case

No prison for Brakley 
Stepdaughter of ex-Lake Station mayor gets home detention in corruption case
Post-Tribune (IN)
July 8, 2016
http://infoweb.newsbank.com.proxy.portagelibrary.info/resources/doc/nb/news/15E1FD0067283350?p=AWNB
The stepdaughter of former Lake Station Mayor Keith Soderquist will not see jail time for a federal theft charge.

Judge James Moody in U.S. District Court of Hammond on Thursday accepted a plea agreement for Miranda Brakley that will see Brakley serve six months of home detention and two years probation for agreeing to plead guilty to one count of theft from a program receiving federal funds. A second charge of her lying on her bankruptcy filing was dropped.

Additionally, Brakley must pay a fine of $664, the remaining 4 percent of the money she took.

Moody said he had fully considered "the crime of conviction" as well as letters sent by Brakley's family and friends in giving her the low end of sentencing. The plea agreement, he said, reflects the seriousness of the crime and affords deterrent of future crimes while taking into account her non-criminal history prior to 2012.

Looking gaunt and tired, Brakley, 36, read a short statement to the court before Moody accepted the plea agreement.

"Words cannot express how sorry I am for the humiliation and loss of my actions," Brakley said, fighting back tears. "I sincerely apologize to my family and friends for the embarrassment I've caused."

Brakley's attorney, Thomas Vanes, called the plea agreement "pretty straightforward," and said Brakley "just wants everything to be over."

"I'm confident she'll do what she needs to do to finally put this behind her," Vanes said after the hearing. "She has a host of medical issues that preceded any of this, so it's not like she's living a normal life at this stage."

Letters of support from family and friends for Brakley described the former court clerk as a kind woman brought up in the Catholic faith who thinks of others before herself. They lauded her getting a master's degree from Purdue.

Her father, Danny Brakley, said in his letter that Brakley now has a feeding tube and received serial balloon dilations from a surgery she had in Florida in December.

Deborah Soderquist, her mother, and Keith Soderquist, her stepfather, were not in the courtroom.

A second federal indictment accused Brakley, a former city court clerk, of stealing at least $5,000 in bond money from city court from August 2011 to July 2012 and hiding $7,000 in income from her bankruptcy case, which she filed in August 2012. Former Mayor Soderquist and his wife, Deborah, were also charged with helping Brakley hide the thefts and violate federal banking law.

The Indiana State Board of Accounts reported Brakley never deposited about $16,000 of bond money into the court's bank account. She returned the money by December 2012, claiming she had mistakenly taken it with her other belongings when she was fired from her court clerk position and that it had sat in her vehicle ever since.

FBI agents raided City Hall in 2013, and federal attorneys filed charges against the Soderquists and Brakley in the spring of 2014.

Former Mayor Keith Soderquist and his wife, Deborah, were convicted in the fall of stealing money from the Lake Station Food Pantry - which receives money from city and state tax dollars as well as donations - and the mayor's campaign fund for their personal use, including dozens of trips to Four Winds Casino in New Buffalo, Mich., from 2010 to 2012.

In January, Keith Soderquist reached a plea agreement with federal prosecutors admitting he helped Brakley hide that she stole more than $5,000 in court bond money from the city by helping her get a $15,000 loan from someone else. As part of the deal, the Soderquists dropped a motion for a new trial to overturn their September 2015 trial - in which they argued U.S. District Judge Rudy Lozano fell asleep at least twice during the two weeks it was heard - as well as their appeal rights in that case.

In return, federal attorneys dropped all charges against Deborah Soderquist in the case involving Brakley, and they will recommend that Keith Soderquist serve his sentences in both cases concurrently. They also will recommend he serve the minimum of the recommended federal sentencing guideline range in the case involving Brakley - which is up to five years for pleading guilty to one count of acting as an accessory after the fact - and that he serve within the guideline range for the other case.

The guideline range will be determined at the sentencing hearing at 1 p.m. Sept. 28 in Moody's courtroom. Soderquist will also appear at 10:30 a.m. Sept. 28 in Judge Rudy Lozano's courtroom for sentencing on those charges.

The agreements for both Soderquists stipulate that all three defendants must abide by their agreement for the ex-mayor and his wife to receive the benefits of their own agreements.