Judge sentences former Lake Station mayor to 4 years in prison: 'Shame on you'
Post-Tribune
September 28, 2016 - 8:34 PM
http://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/post-tribune/news/ct-ptb-soderquist-federal-sentencings-st-0929-20160928-story.html
Federal judges had strong words for a former Lake Station mayor and his wife Wednesday, particularly about the money they used from the Lake Station food pantry.
"What were you thinking? Are you goofy or what?" Judge James Moody asked in a raised voice to Keith Soderquist.
After a brief, silent pause, Moody asked Soderquist to answer him, and Soderquist replied, "no."
"You took full advantage of (the poor)," Moody said. "Shame on you."
In a full day of parties shuffling between courtrooms, medical documents and court transcripts, Keith and Deborah Soderquist were sentenced Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Hammond.
Keith Soderquist was ordered to spend four years in prison — 42 months for his crimes with his wife followed by 6 months for aiding his stepdaughter — while Deborah Soderquist was sentenced to two years in prison. The couple must also pay more than $26,000 in restitution to the city of Lake Station and to the IRS.
Last September, a jury found the couple guilty of using money from his campaign fund and the food pantry on dozens of gambling trips to Michigan.
Earlier this year, Keith Soderquist also pleaded guilty to helping his stepdaughter, Miranda Brakely — who was sentenced to six months of home detention — hide thousands of dollars she stole from the city when she worked there as a court clerk.
And this summer Soderquist admitted in court documents to recording and listening to thousands of phone calls city hall employees made since 2011, including a call made from a phone in the private chambers of a Lake Station City Court judge. Though he wasn't charged for the wiretapping, it factored into the sentencing, documents state.
Wiretapping
Before the couple was sentenced Wednesday, the prosecution read excerpts from grand jury transcripts from former Lake Station Police Chief Kevin Garber and the ConvergeOne employee who installed the phone system revealing new details about Soderquist's admitted wiretapping.
Garber testified in the transcripts that he walked in on Keith and Deborah Soderquist chatting about listening in on a city employee's phone call with the employee's mother and Deborah laughing and saying something along the lines of, "Don't they know we can listen in on them?"
The recording system was set up during the construction and move to the new Lake Station City Hall in late 2011, according to court documents. While it is fairly common to record police and fire department phone calls, Soderquist specifically asked the installers to record calls of all city hall employees without them knowing, the ConvergeOne employee testified in the transcripts, allowing Soderquist to access the recordings at any time on his computer.
When the system was initially set up, there was a function that notifies callers they are being recorded, the installer testified, but Soderquist requested that be disabled, making employees unaware of the recordings until the government began investigating earlier this year.
Medical ailments
The Soderquists' trial before the wiretapping revelations was accompanied by discussion of their medical ailments, and their sentencings were no exception.
The prosecution argued Wednesday that Soderquist should be taken into custody immediately after sentencing because Soderquist violated his bond in the case by continuing the wiretapping as his trial progressed, according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Philip Benson.
"I can't think of anything more egregious," Benson said, noting how "incredibly serious" wiretapping is.
But there is a medical issue that poses a problem with going straight into custody, defense attorney Scott King argued. After exhausting all non-surgical options, a doctor scheduled Keith Soderquist for neck surgery on Oct. 13, according to King.
"This isn't about getting his affairs in order," King said. "This is about getting his neck fixed so he doesn't spend the next three-plus years in agony."
Judge Rudy Lozano agreed Soderquist could have the surgery and time for recovery, but he must report to prison on Nov. 14. However, if the surgery gets canceled, he has to go to prison sooner, Lozano said.
Deborah Soderquist also highlighted her medical concerns Wednesday. Last week, Deborah Soderquist asked for her hearing to be pushed back in light of a CT scan scheduled the day after her sentencing. Her life has been filled with medical ailments, from her diagnosis of muscular dystrophy in her 20s, to her degenerative joint diseases to her more recent kidney cancer diagnosis, defense attorney Visvaldis Kupsis said.
Additionally, the defense asked she be able to serve her sentence in a halfway house to make it easier for her to receive cancer treatment.
But if the sentence was lenient, "I think the message to society is that if you're sick, you can do any crime you want," Judge Lozano said.
While Lozano allowed Deborah Soderquist to start her sentence on Nov. 14 like her husband, he decided she would have to serve her sentence in a prison equipped with a medical facility.
Apologies
In each of the defendant's sentencing hearings, Judge Lozano repeatedly expressed how "bothered" he was by the layers of crimes the two committed.
Kupsis described the case as "a story of two people in love who make a lot of mistakes." And the mistakes came when Soderquist "succumbed" to the "flashing lights" of casinos with his gambling addiction, King said.
"It doesn't excuse, but it does serve to explain," King said.
Family members of the Soderquists filled a bench in the courtroom Wednesday, and letters from family, friends and coworkers were filed in the couple's court docket leading up to the sentencing, saying their crimes were out of character of the positive impacts the couple made on Lake Station.
Keith and Deborah Soderquist each made brief statements to the court before they were sentenced.
"I would like to sincerely apologize to my wife, my two daughters, my family, my friends and to all those who had to endure this process. I am sorry," Keith Soderquist said.
His wife followed, saying, "I would just like to apologize to everyone that was affected by my actions."
But it's the people of Lake Station the couple should apologize to, Benson said.
"Maybe he should apologize to them because he lied to them and stole from them," Benson said.
"Lake Station is not a rich community, but a very proud community, and they have every right to expect that it will be run properly," Judge Lozano said, as he sentenced the couple.
Judge Lozano admitted that people make mistakes, and Keith Soderquist did try to help his wife and stepdaughters.
However, "I wish you had had the same respect for the people of Lake Station," Lozano said.
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