12292018 - News Article - Northwest Indiana pay-to-play towing investigation keeps federal courts busy in 2018

Northwest Indiana pay-to-play towing investigation keeps federal courts busy in 2018
Chicago Tribune
December 29, 2018
https://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/post-tribune/news/ct-ptb-federal-corruption-cases-2018-st-1227-story.html

High-profile investigations into alleged pay-to-play towing in Northwest Indiana continued to keep federal judges busy in 2018.

Former Lake County Sheriff John Buncich in January 2018 received a more than 15-year sentence for using his office to solicit bribes from tow operators. His two co-defendants, former Chief Timothy Downs and William Szarmach, of C.S.A. Towing, who cooperated with federal investigators, each received two years of probation.

Downs, Szarmach and Buncich were named in a multicount indictment in November 2016 alleging a towing scheme where the sheriff accepted bribes in the form of thousands of dollars in cash and donations to his campaign fund, Buncich Boosters, according to court records.

Szarmach was later charged with filing a false tax return, and agreed to pay upward of $89,000 in restitution as a part of his sentence.

The former sheriff, who is being held in a federal prison in Springfield, Mo., received positive news on his appeal Dec. 21.

In his appeal filed with the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago, Buncich argued successfully that there was insufficient evidence to support any of his wire fraud convictions, court records state.

“The United States concedes that it failed to introduce sufficient evidence of ‘Federal reserve payroll fund’ transfers as alleged in counts 1 through 3 of the indictment,” Assistant U.S. Attorney David Hollar wrote in the response.

“Those counts should be vacated, and the case should be remanded for resentencing on the remaining counts,” Hollar said.

The government argued, however, that there was “sufficient evidence” to convict Buncich of his two remaining wire fraud counts, the response states.

Buncich was indicted the same day as Portage Mayor James Snyder, but that case is expected to go to trial in January.

Much of 2018 was spent litigating how federal investigators handled and screened email communications between Snyder and his attorneys. Snyder argued the faulty process exposed the federal trial team to attorney client privileged information, and should warrant the recusal of those assistant U.S. attorneys or the dismissal of some of the charges.

Federal prosecutors said Snyder has not presented any evidence that shows his email communications were used in any improper way during the investigation, according to court documents, and that a judge should not disqualify the prosecutors on the case or dismiss any charges against the Portage mayor.

Judge Joseph Van Bokkelen declined to remove the trial team or dismiss any of the charges.

“The court finds that, as carried out in this case, the filter process worked sufficiently, even if the process itself has inherent flaws (it has a semblance of the fox guarding the hen house),” Van Bokkelen said, in his order.

Snyder’s attorneys have asked Van Bokkelen to reconsider the order.

A former Merrillville town councilman, who federal investigators said during testimony in Buncich’s case was an early target of the towing investigation, was sentenced to 15 months in prison in June.

Tom Goralcyzk admitted he helped a tow operator secure a contract with Merrillville and accepted two used vehicles and other items to make that arrangement.

The charges said that Goralczyk “did knowingly and corruptly solicit demand, accept and agree to accept” a 2000 Jeep Grand Cherokee; a 2008 Ford Focus; four new camper tires; and free storage for a motorcycle from “Individual A” in return for a towing contract from Merrillville, according to court documents.

Goralczyk presented false bills of sale to the Indiana Bureau of Motor Vehicles for the Jeep Grand Cherokee, which he obtained for $400 though the value was in excess of $2,500, and for the Ford Focus, which he accepted for free though it was valued in excess of $5,000, according to court documents.

Lake County’s former deputy chief of police was pulled into Buncich’s case in April, when he was charged for lying to the FBI when he was interviewed by federal investigators about towing operations.

Dan Murchek, 58, of Schererville, was sentenced in September to two years of probation by federal Judge James Moody. Murchek was indicted in April for allegedly making false statements to the FBI, according to court documents, and reportedly lied to investigators during an interview about towing operations under convicted former Buncich when the former deputy chief was asked about campaign contributions he received from a tow operator.

During the fall of 2016, Murchek had announced he planned to run for sheriff during the 2018 election, as Buncich had served two consecutive terms and was prohibited by term limits from running again.

On Sept. 23, 2016, Murchek met with “Person A,” who was recording the meeting in cooperation with the FBI, and discussed how to structure a campaign donation to avoid Indiana’s limitation on business contributions, according to court documents.

The indictment said “Person A” allegedly gave Murchek a $1,000 donation from his business, which was a towing firm that did work for the Sheriff’s Department, and a personal check for $500 from one of the business’ employees. “Person A” had given an employee $500, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, and the employee then wrote a check to Murchek’s campaign.

During a November 2016 interview with the FBI, agents asked Murchek about contributions from “Person A,” according to the indictment, but he denied structuring the donation to skirt Indiana campaign donation limits.

Moody, during Murchek’s September sentencing, decried the former deputy’s chief’s conduct.

“You’ll be remembered as a crook,” Moody said.

“Yes, sir,” Murchek said, during sentencing.

The Porter County assessor in October was indicted on a tax charge related to his personal business, according to court documents, but is expected to cooperate against the Portage mayor, his brother.

Jon Snyder, 42, has pleaded guilty to failing to supply information to the IRS, a misdemeanor charge.

Snyder, as owner of Shoreline Appraisals Inc., allegedly failed to give the IRS an “Informational Return 1099 Form, which is a requirement for non-employees who received more than $600 in payments during a calendar year, according to court documents.

Snyder and Shoreline Appraisals allegedly failed to file the document for “Person A,” who was paid more than $5,000 in 2013, according to court documents.

The long-running case against employees at the Calumet Township Trustee’s office wound down in 2018.

Former Trustee Mary Elgin, 74, was sentenced in May to a year and a day in prison after she pleaded guilty to two counts of wire fraud, one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and one count of failure to file a tax return. She is being held at a federal prison in Pekin, Ill. She has a June 28 release date, according to Bureau of Prisons website.

Elgin used township employees and offices to run political campaigns and raise money for political fundraisers. “The higher the employee's salary, the more tickets employees were given and expected to purchase” for the fundraisers, court records state.

Steven Hunter, Elgin’s son who was head of the township's information systems technology department, was sentenced to a year of supervised release after also taking a plea deal.

Ethel Shelton, Elgin’s secretary, and Alex Wheeler, supervisor of the township's Job Search Works, chose to go to trial in April. The jury acquitted Wheeler, but convicted Shelton of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to commit honest services wire fraud.

Shelton’s motion for a mistrial is pending and is scheduled for a hearing in February.

12172018 - Federally indicted Portage Mayor Snyder's Defense Attorneys Sniffing Around My Website!!??

Apparently, Federally indicted Portage Mayor James Snyder's defense attorneys have no boundaries. The law firm thought it was okay for them to visit this website - a website owned by a victim of Snyder's corruption, who was retaliated against for reporting corruption in Porter County Indiana.

REALLY, Taft, Stettinius & Hollister LLP?

Guess that makes it fair game for me to list my website pages that Snyder's defense attorneys recently visited.:

11172016 - NEWS ARTICLES - Portage Indiana Mayor James Snyder - Indicted for public corruption - PART 1 - 11172016 - 12312017


11282011 - Portage Police Chief Becker Resigns - Portage Mayor Snyder refuses to interview Becker


03132017 - US Attorney David Capp Resigns - Northern Indiana


02062017 - Sayeth federally indicted Portage Mayor James Snyder: "Any self-serving criticism of the mayor is not good for Portage"


11142011--Fax-To-Mayor-James-Snyder--RE-Chief-Becker--Unlawful-Police-Entry--10072010

12142018 - News Article - Porter commissioners provide update on election investigation

Porter commissioners provide update on election investigation
NWI Times
December 14, 2018
https://www.nwitimes.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/elections/porter-commissioners-provide-update-on-election-investigation/article_8f4bef1d-bc1b-5821-9280-98d82027d1ff.html

VALPARAISO — As a variety of state agencies investigate the troubled Porter County election in November, some local officials are hoping to educate residents on the election responsibilities.

"The commissioners’ office has also been advised that an independent investigation into the Porter County general election breakdown has been launched by the Indiana Secretary of State’s Election Division in coordination with the Indiana State Police and Indiana State Board of Accounts. The commissioners’ office will fully cooperate with the election division, state board of accounts and state police, including providing complaints, emails and other correspondence received that pertain to the election, and urges all other officials to do the same," Porter County Commissioners Jeff Good, R-Center, Laura Blaney, D-South and Jim Biggs, R-North, stated in a news release Friday.

The statement also said the commissioners will not comment about the investigation while it is pending.

The November election was marred by a variety of problems, including a lack of poll workers, which delayed the opening of a dozen election sites causing those sites to be open past the traditional 6 p.m. voting deadline. That led to issues with provisional votes and a three-day delay in announcing election results.

Biggs said the commissioners wanted to give the public an update on the situation, letting residents know an investigation is underway.

Commissioners met with the FBI following the election and called for the resignation of Porter County Clerk Karen Martin, who many held responsible for the election problems. Martin's term expires Dec. 31. She was defeated in her effort to gain the Porter County auditor's seat during the election last month.

In addition, Biggs and Blaney said the second part of the release, a 19-page presentation titled "The Election Process: Roles & Responsibilities," was put together as an educational tool. The presentation can be found at porterco.org/DocumentCenter/View/5289.

"We felt that many of the residents calling us, voters or even the poll workers didn't know who has the responsibility in the election," Biggs said. "There were certainly a lot of questions people had."

"For me, the main reason was that very few people realize how elections work in Porter County," said Blaney, adding some of the issues which arose last month have to be addressed and people need to know how the system works.

"Knowledge is power," she said.

12122018 - News Article - Judge orders exchange of information in Portage mayor's public corruption case

Judge orders exchange of information in Portage mayor's public corruption case
NWI Times
December 12, 2018
https://www.nwitimes.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/judge-orders-exchange-of-information-in-portage-mayor-s-public/article_7c6e2824-b471-5be1-b984-827147e084ad.html

HAMMOND — Federal prosecutors in Portage Mayor James Snyder's public corruption case have been ordered to turn over all recordings to Snyder's defense team by Friday.

U.S. District Court Judge Joseph Van Bokkelen granted a motion filed by Snyder's attorneys earlier this week which asked prosecutors to not wait until the Friday before the Jan. 14 trial to turn over exhibit and witness lists.

Van Bokkelen also ordered prosecutors and Snyder to simultaneously exchange exhibit and witness lists by 5 p.m. Dec. 21, according to court records.

Van Bokkelen and attorneys from both sides held a conference call on Tuesday over scheduling issues. According to court records, Van Bokkelen reaffirmed the trial would begin Jan. 14, but added it could be a short first week with the possibility of not holding court Thursday and Friday of that week. The court filing did not disclose reasons for the scheduling issue discussion.

The trial is expected to last three weeks. Snyder was indicted in November 2016 on two counts of bribery and one count of tax evasion.

12112018 - Christmas Gift Idea For Federally Indicted Portage Indiana Mayor James Snyder

Christmas is around the corner - and the baffling question at Portage city hall could possibly be: What do you get for your federally indicted boss/mayor? 

Here's a suggestion from Abbi's and Bailey's doghouse:

12112018 - News Article - Court filings continue in Portage mayor's public corruption case

Court filings continue in Portage mayor's public corruption case
NWI Times
December 11, 2018
https://www.nwitimes.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/court-filings-continue-in-portage-mayor-s-public-corruption-case/article_99fd02a7-4088-5394-b731-546180925ec6.html

HAMMOND — With just over a month before the beginning of Portage Mayor James Snyder's public corruption trial, legal filings continue in the case.

Late Monday federal prosecutors filed their response to Snyder's request for U.S. District Court Judge Joseph Van Bokkelen to reconsider his September ruling involving whether prosecutors unfairly viewed attorney/client privileged emails. Van Bokkelen ruled against Snyder. Snyder was seeking the indictment be dismissed or, at the least, the federal trial team be disqualified.

Late last month, Snyder's attorneys filed a motion asking Van Bokkelen to reconsider his decision, citing errors.

"Defendant offers no new arguments or points of law that he has not already raised and this court correctly applied the law to the facts of this case in resolving the motion to dismiss," federal prosecutors wrote in the 24-page response.

Tuesday, Snyder's attorneys filed a third motion to compel, requesting the court to order federal prosecutors to produce witness and exhibit lists to Snyder by this Friday instead of a few days before the trial is set to begin. The motion cites the "titanic amount" of documents in the case and the need of time to review the lists likely generated by the number of documents.

Snyder was indicted Nov. 17, 2016 on two counts of bribery and one count of tax evasion. He and co-defendant John Cortina, who is charged with one count of paying a bribe, are set to go on trial Jan. 14.

12052018 - News Article - Judge says court getting to 'end of' final pending motions before Portage mayor's trial

Judge says court getting to 'end of' final pending motions before Portage mayor's trial
Chicago Tribune
December 05, 2018
https://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/post-tribune/news/ct-ptb-snyder-motion-rulings-st-1206-story.html

A federal judge ruled on some of the Portage mayor’s final lingering motions before his public corruption trial next month but said he needed more to decide whether James Snyder’s Sixth Amendment rights were violated.

Snyder appeared Wednesday in Hammond’s U.S. District Court for a hearing on his requests to exclude some undercover recordings and information, which he claimed were protected under attorney-client privilege.

Snyder and his co-defendant, John Cortina, of Kustom Auto Body in Portage, are set to begin their three-week trial Jan. 14. The two have pleaded not guilty after they were indicted in 2016 with allegedly violating a federal bribery statute when the mayor solicited money from Cortina and “Individual A” and gave them a towing contract for Portage.

Snyder is also charged with obstructing Internal Revenue Service laws.

Judge Joseph Van Bokkelen said the January trial date was firm unless there was an extreme unforeseen circumstance that arose.

There have been dozens of motions filed in the two years since Snyder was first indicted, but Van Bokkelen said Wednesday they were finally getting to the “end of it.”

“We’re going to chip away at these things,” Van Bokkelen said.

Snyder argued that his Sixth Amendment rights were violated when a conversation he had with his brother, Jon Snyder, about his strategy with his then-attorney and now-U.S. Attorney Thomas Kirsch II was reported to investigators.

On Dec. 5, 2016, a month after he was indicted, James Snyder told his brother that Kirsch “suggested Snyder think about hiring another attorney because Kirsch’s calendar did not line up well with Snyder’s upcoming trial in January,” court records state. James Snyder said that he and Kirsch had also been “working on tax issues,” according to court records.

Jon Snyder, who pleaded guilty in October for failing to file a tax form, was an informant for the FBI at the time, attorneys said. He reported this information to FBI Agent Donald Cooley with the FBI’s Merrillville office, who wrote a report that then went to federal prosecutors, Jayna Cacioppo, one of James Snyder’s attorneys, said.

“That information should have never been allowed to get to the trial team, but it did,” Cacioppo said.

Cacioppo argued that this violated Snyder’s Sixth Amendment right and that the information should be excluded at trial.

“The information wasn’t gathered improperly,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Philip Benson said. “… There was absolutely no violation here.”

After James Snyder’s indictment, there was still an ongoing investigation whether had the mayor had improperly obtained over $90,000 from the city’s utility services board to cover attorney fees over questions about a trip he took to Austria, Cooley said.

Cooley, who has since retired from the FBI, testified that Jon Snyder was clearly instructed about the Sixth Amendment and not to solicit information from his brother about conversations he had with his attorneys.

“We told him to minimize the contact” and “don’t bring it up,” Benson said.

Jon Snyder avoided calls and texts from his brother for months, and Cooley and Benson went through some of the messages Wednesday. James Snyder sent his brother a January 2017 email with the subject line “something is up.”

“I need a friend and a brother right now…,” James Snyder wrote in the email.

But if the brothers were talking at a family gathering and James Snyder “blurts out” what he talked about with his attorney, “what are you supposed to do? Bolt out of the room?” Benson asked. Benson argued that was “unrealistic.”

Van Bokkelen said he would make a ruling on the issue in the next 10 days.

Snyder also tried to exclude some undercover recordings at trial.

In May 2014, a confidential informant met with James Snyder in the mayor’s office and recorded a conversation about which companies were on the Portage tow list, court records show.

Snyder’s attorneys argued that this recording should be excluded because it wasn’t turned over to the defense until this fall. Benson countered that the government turned over the recording as soon as prosecutors were aware of it, and that information from the recording was given to the defense in an earlier report.

Van Bokkelen ruled that the recording could be played at trial.

Snyder also asked to keep recordings made of Cortina out of the trial. His attorneys argued that the government filed its Santiago proffer — a document that essentially lays out the government’s case — late, which should keep the recordings out.

Van Bokkelen denied that motion, too.

Before the hearing ended, Van Bokkelen reminded the defense and government about civility.

“I’m a big guy on civility,” the judge said.

Attorneys can be aggressive at trial, but if the trial gets uncivil, that “will not be tolerated,” Van Bokkelen said.

“I’m talking both sides,” the judge said.

12052018 - News Article - Judge in Snyder public corruption case scolds attorneys, says trial will go forward Jan. 14 'unless I drop over'

Judge in Snyder public corruption case scolds attorneys, says trial will go forward Jan. 14 'unless I drop over'
NWI Times
December 05, 2018
https://www.nwitimes.com/news/education/judge-in-snyder-public-corruption-case-scolds-attorneys-says-trial/article_9cfb6af9-fa4e-5052-941d-2aa02d1bacd2.html

HAMMOND — A rift between attorneys Wednesday during a hearing prior to Portage Mayor James Snyder's public corruption trial caused the judge to issue a warning about being civil.

During defense attorney Jackie Bennett Jr.'s cross-examination of the lone witness in the hearing, retired FBI Agent Donald Cooley, Bennett began asking Cooley about the fate of fellow FBI Agent Eric Fields, who also was involved in Snyder's investigation.

Bennett asked Cooley if he knew if Fields was transferred because of a disciplinary issue.

Cooley replied Fields was promoted and transferred.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Philip Benson objected to the questioning as not being relevant.

Bennett pressed Cooley about any disciplinary problems involving Fields; confidential informant and the mayor's brother Jon Snyder; and Jon Snyder's attorney, Christopher Buckley. Bennett asked Cooley if he knew if Fields was disciplined for trying to force Buckley to turn over records. Bennett continued asking Cooley about the alleged incident, including a meeting between Buckley and Benson.

Benson immediately objected, accusing Bennett of making up facts and telling U.S. District Court Judge Joseph Van Bokkelen he would immediately take the stand and testify under oath that Bennett was lying.

Van Bokkelen reeled the two in and redirected the testimony, but he issued a warning near the end of the two-hour hearing.

"I'm a big guy on civility," Van Bokklen said, warning both sides that if civility isn't maintained, they "will be called out."

He also told them the case, stemming from a November 2016 indictment of James Snyder on two counts of bribery and one count of tax evasion, has "had hiccups all the way along." The hiccups, he said included a change in judges along with a change in Snyder's defense team after his original attorney, Thomas Kirsch, was appointed U.S. attorney for Northern Indiana.

Despite the hiccups and any others that might come up in the next month, the trial will go forward Jan. 14 "unless I drop over,"  Van Bokklen said.

On Wednesday, Van Bokklen heard testimony on a defense motion to suppress evidence, claiming a Dec. 5, 2016, text between James Snyder and his brother, Jon Snyder, the Porter County assessor, was confidential.

Jon Snyder, who recently pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor tax charge in federal court, worked as a confidential source for the FBI for at least three years. He reported the conversation to investigators. Investigators then reported the conversation to prosecutors.

The conversation included trial strategy and was attorney/client privileged, said defense attorney Jayna Cacioppo, adding Jon Snyder was acting as an agent of the government.

In the text, James Snyder told his brother Kirsch suggested he hire another attorney because Kirsch's calendar did not mesh with the original trial date set in January 2017. James Snyder also told Jon Snyder the tax issues in the indictment were unfounded and work being done by the Dogan & Dogan law firm and Kirsch involved tax issues and was for James Snyder's wife.

"He should have stopped listening," Cacioppo said during her closing argument, adding it violated James Snyder's Sixth Amendment right to a fair trial.

Bennett asked that any evidence obtained by the government after Jan. 23, 2017, the date of the original trial, be suppressed during trial.

Benson disagreed, saying the information came during the investigation of James Snyder's possible attempt to defraud the city and, if it were a violation, the information contained wasn't a surprise, unexpected or helpful to the government.

Cooley, who was one of Jon Snyder's handlers during the investigation into his brother as well as other public corruption investigations within Porter County, said the FBI also was investigating whether James Snyder attempted to use some $93,000 in Portage Utility Service Board funds to pay his attorneys. 

Cooley testified once James Snyder was indicted, Jon Snyder was instructed not to broach certain subjects, to ignore him as much as possible and, if James Snyder initiated a conversation, to just listen. He added they were interested in the Dec. 5, 2016, conversation because it contradicted claims James Snyder made to others regarding the $93,000 payments to attorneys from city coffers.

Cooley said he did not believe it violated James Snyder's rights because James Snyder was not under indictment for possibly defrauding the city of the funds, nor had Jon Snyder initiated the conversation.

Van Bokklen said he would issue a ruling within 10 days.

Van Bokklen did rule against the defense team on two other motions filed in the case. The motions involved requests to exclude a tape recording from evidence and punishing prosecutors for filing the 83-page proffer, which included transcripts of undercover tape recordings, after deadline.

12042018 - News Article - Portage mayor's actions were more 'naive' than criminal, says defense

Portage mayor's actions were more 'naive' than criminal, says defense
NWI Times
December 04, 2018
https://www.nwitimes.com/news/education/portage-mayor-s-actions-were-more-naive-than-criminal-says/article_6a81bc43-a2a7-5eb3-a8ab-7c5236653b3d.html

HAMMOND — Portage Mayor James Snyder's actions were more out of naivety than criminal intent, according to his defense team in the latest filing in the public corruption case.

Snyder's attorney Jackie M. Bennett Jr., of Indianapolis, filed a 22-page response to prosecutors' 83-page proffer filing last month that offered excerpts of undercover tapes between Snyder's co-defendant John Cortina and a confidential source.

"Mr. Snyder is innocent and naïve to a fault," Bennett writes, saying while Cortina and the informant spoke about a $12,000 bribe to have the informant's towing company placed on the city's tow list, Snyder always saw the exchange of money as a loan from Cortina.

"So even if Mr. Cortina, at CHS1’s (confidential human source) urging, privately play acted the role of a 79-year-old gangster, yukking it up about 'juice money,' the government’s own proffer proves Mr. Snyder had no idea what they were talking about," writes Bennett.

In two counts of the four-count federal indictment handed down in November 2016, Snyder is accused of accepting the bribe from Cortina and Cortina is accused of paying the bribe. Snyder was also indicted in two additional counts not involving Cortina, including another bribery count and tax evasion involving his personal business.

Bennett also writes that Snyder's brother, Jon Snyder, Porter County assessor, acted as a government informant, in an attempt to discredit James Snyder on his statements that the $12,000 from Cortina was a loan.

"The brother (CHS2) then went to Mr. Cortina, hoping for evidence that might contradict Mr. Snyder’s expressed belief, evidence that he and Mr. Cortina planned to call it a loan simply to cover their tracks. As CHS2 prodded, 'I wonder why then uh, I wonder why, I wonder what my brother’s doing trying to call it a loan. Like I’m wondering like does that make it legal? I don’t know. I’m not sure what his uh strategy is there.' That would have been a real smoking gun, if Mr. Cortina responded by saying that they planned to call it a loan to cover their tracks, but he said nothing of the sort. Instead he responded with an unintelligible non-sequitur," according to the filing.

Jon Snyder was later convicted in federal court on a misdemeanor tax count and is also expected to testify Wednesday during a hearing on a motion to suppress evidence by Snyder's team, among other matters.

Bennett also contends federal prosecutors left out excerpts of tapes which would have favored his client and included information which had no relevance to the case, but made Snyder look bad. He also contends Snyder had no knowledge of the conversations between Cortina and the informant and was oblivious to the conspiracy between Cortina and the informant.

"Absent from the proffer is any evidence that Mr. Snyder engaged in wrongful conduct. There is no evidence he induced, participated in, or knew of the conversations. Also absent is significant exculpatory evidence, which provides context and affirmatively proves Mr. Snyder is innocent and was not involved in any conspiracy," writes Bennett.

Bennett also writes the government sent the informant to Snyder to see if he would take bribes, but he did not. Instead, writes Bennett, Snyder was more concerned about the company helping "proverbial 'little old ladies' out of the ditches free of charge." He also contends it was 18 months later, after Cortina and the informant schemed to get Snyder to take the money, that the informant's company was added to the list.

Bennett also contends Cortina made donations to Snyder's political campaigns and his mayor's roundtable for years without any concern of illegality. He also said Cortina had previously been on the city's tow list with another towing firm and was removed without any change in status of donations.

The filing also denies Cortina provided cash to Snyder, paid for vacations, Christmas presents, fireworks, Chicago Blackhawks tickets and food, calling them "false hearsay allegations."

12042018 - News Article - Snyder says undercover recordings fail to show bribery conspiracy

Snyder says undercover recordings fail to show bribery conspiracy
Chicago Tribune
December 04, 2018
https://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/post-tribune/news/ct-ptb-snyder-proffer-response-st-1205-story.html

Attorneys for indicted Portage Mayor James Snyder say a series of undercover recordings fail to show a conspiracy to allegedly solicit bribes, but only showed “private puffery” on the part of a tow operator.

Defense attorney Jackie Bennett Jr. on Monday said that the undercover recordings do not prove that a conspiracy existed and a judge should bar them from being used during Snyder’s upcoming corruption trial. Federal prosecutors have asked the judge to allow them to use the undercover recordings against Snyder during trial to show that the mayor was involved in a conspiracy with tow operators.

“There is no evidence he was a conspirator,” Bennett said, in court filings. “There is no evidence he induced, participated in, or even knew of the hearsay conversation the government seeks to admit through its Santiago proffer.”

The Santiago proffer aims to demonstrate a conspiracy and looks to a judge to allow prosecutors to admit statements from other parties against a defendant.

A series of undercover recordings made by a tow operator cooperating with the FBI documented conversations with John Cortina, of Kustom Auto Body in Portage and the mayor’s co-defendant in the case; Snyder; and other officials.

Bennett said the recordings do not show that Snyder had any knowledge of a reported scheme to get towing business in Portage and it cannot be established that he was a party to any conspiracy.

In November, Assistant U.S. Attorney Philip Benson filed a document that relied on undercover recordings to show proof of an alleged conspiracy between the mayor and tow operators to solicit bribes in exchange for a spot on Portage’s tow list.

“The government’s evidence will establish that defendants Snyder and Cortina engaged in, or aided and abetted in, a conspiracy or joint venture, to commit bribery through the payment and receipt of funds disguised as campaign contributions to further the personal and political interests of the defendants,” Benson said, in court documents.

Benson said that in 2016, a confidential source, who operated a tow company, recorded conversations with Cortina where he was told to reportedly pay Snyder to get on the city’s towing list. Benson said that the source and Cortina allegedly each gave Snyder $6,000, in check form, to the Portage mayor’s campaign fund and “roundtable” committee, according to court documents.

During one recorded conversation, Cortina reportedly said that Snyder call the money “loans” but he called it “juice money.”

“…More than two years after indictment, the government cannot produce evidence showing Mr. Snyder made any quid pro quo arrangement with Mr. Cortina,” Bennett said. “Absent from the proffer is any evidence that Mr. Snyder knew anything about Mr. Cortina’s private puffery, all of which occurred outside Mr. Snyder’s presence.”

Bennett said the government’s proffer has shown in the conversations between Cortina and the confidential source that Snyder understood the payments were loans to his campaign committee.

“So even if Mr. Cortina, at CHS1’s surging, privately play acted the role of a 79-year-old gangster, yukking it up about ‘juice money,’ the government’s own proffer proves Mr. Snyder had no idea what they were talking about.”

Snyder and Cortina were charged in November 2016 with allegedly violating a federal bribery statue. Federal prosecutors said the mayor allegedly solicited money from Cortina and “Individual A” and gave them a towing contract for Portage.

Snyder allegedly accepted two checks, one for $10,000 and another for $2,000, from Cortina and “Individual A.”

Snyder received an additional bribery indictment for alleged accepting $13,000 in connection with a Board of Works contract.

Additional charges allege that Snyder obstructed internal revenue laws.

Snyder and Cortina both pleaded not guilty to the charges, according to court documents.

12032018 - Defendant James J. Snyder's Santiago Response -- USDC--IN/ND--Case-2:16-cr-00160-JVB-JEM--Document-185--Filed-12/03/18

Defendant James J. Snyder's Santiago Response
USDC--IN/ND--Case-2:16-cr-00160-JVB-JEM--Document-185--Filed-12/03/18
Portage mayor's actions were more 'naive' than criminal says defense
NWI Times
December 04, 2018
https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/nwitimes.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/c/24/c24b7e7e-73a6-518e-a2f0-47c091e6d30c/5c07193f1780e.pdf.pdf

12032018--Defendant-James-J-Snyder's-Santiago-Response--PDF--USDC--IN/ND--Case-2:16-cr-00160-JVB-JEM--Document-185--Filed-12/03/18

11302018 - News Article - Late absentee ballots, early voting errors and lack of staff among red flags preceding 'chaos' of Porter County Election

Late absentee ballots, early voting errors and lack of staff among red flags preceding 'chaos' of Porter County election
Chicago Tribune
November 30, 2018
https://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/post-tribune/news/ct-ptb-porter-election-changes-st-1202-story.html

Sundae Schoon, the Republican director in Porter County’s voter registration office, started worrying about how the county’s midterm general election was being handled in late September.

“There was such an influx of (requests for) absentee ballots coming in,” she said, adding there were only two people in Clerk Karen Martin’s office to handle them.

By the Saturday before the Nov. 6 election, her concerns grew deeper, because the suitcases for precinct inspectors weren’t ready to be picked up. Many inspectors pick up the supplies that day if they can’t get them the day before the election.

She began to wonder.

“If that’s not ready, what else isn’t?” she said, adding she called David Bengs, president of the election board, about the suitcases and he directed her to do whatever needed to be done to get them ready.

That was just one of many problems county and party officials said preceded an Election Day that became a whirlwind of chaos, as poll workers couldn’t get into polls, two court hearings were held to keep late-opening polls open, and poll workers waited long hours for absentee ballots that had never been sorted to arrive.

The ensuring few days brought an effort to count the 18,562 absentee ballots; a protest in front of the county administration building with demands for votes to be counted; calls for an assortment of investigations into how the election was handled, including to the FBI; and a three-day wait for preliminary election results that was capped with calls for Martin, a Republican, to resign for her mishandling of the election. She refused.

Officials attribute the breakdown in the county’s electoral process to a number of factors, including reassurances from Martin that her office could handle the election, a lack of communication with the election board, and an election that was wanting in one of its most basic of needs – workers to answer calls, handle absentee ballots, and usher voters through the polls.

Martin declined to answer a series of questions about the handling of the election posed to her by the Post-Tribune via email. She is finishing her second term as clerk and, under state statute, could not seek another term. Martin made an unsuccessful run for auditor.

Past elections and staffing
The voter registration office handled elections until March when, with a 2-1 vote along party lines, the election board voted to move elections to the clerk’s office. The switch came after Kathy Kozuszek, Democratic director in voter registration, said that office handling the elections, which it had done for decades, ran afoul of state law and she wouldn’t do it any more.

Once responsibilities for the election moved to the clerk’s office, two people from voter registration, one Democrat and one Republican, also shifted to the clerk’s office, Schoon said.

Primary turnout, at just over 14 percent, was typically low and didn’t prepare the office for the general election.

“I think it was just overwhelming and unexpected because the primary was so slow,” Schoon said, adding turnout for the general election hit almost 53 percent.

Through the payroll before Election Day, Auditor Vicki Urbanik said, the election board had spent 43 percent of its personnel budget for the year

Martin has said the county’s 123 precincts required 615 poll workers for Election Day; 471 workers were in place for the general election this year, based on payroll data provided to Urbanik.

Additionally, Sheriff David Reynolds has said that he typically provided between six and eight deputies to deliver sorted absentee ballots to the precincts to be counted at the end of the day. Martin only requested four, and the ballots were never ready for pickup.

“There was an assumption made that there was sufficient staff. There was an assumption made there was contact with the sheriff and poll workers,” said J.J. Stankiewicz, the election board’s lone Democrat. “We never received a call that anything was amiss.”

Bengs, who with Martin serves as the two Republicans on the board, said the election board’s role is to serve as a watchdog for the election process, but the actual handling of the election and delegation of duties was by the clerk.

“We didn’t receive any request (from Martin) that there was additional staff needed. We could have done that, gone to the council, and they would have provided it for us,” Bengs said.

The county council never got such a request, said Vice President Jeremy Rivas, D-2nd, who was on the ballot unopposed for a third term in office. He and Councilman Dan Whitten, D-At large, joined commissioners in calling for Martin’s resignation.

When the council started hearing there were needs for the election, Rivas said, “we were moving to have the matter before the council but we were told everything was fine.”

Red flags
Certainly before election night, when poll inspectors and judges flooded the lower level of the county administration building to drop off ballots, officials other than Schoon began to sense there were problems building.

On Oct. 24, on the steps of the county administration building, Valparaiso attorney Jim Harper, a Democrat who made an unsuccessful bid for Secretary of State, held a news conference listing concerns about the election, including voters not receiving absentee ballots in a timely fashion and poll workers who were still waiting on their Election Day assignments.

Days later, on Oct. 27, the ballots of more than 100 voters cast at an early voting site in Portage were not properly initialed by two poll workers. While the number of ballots fluctuated over time, the snafu generated an emergency meeting by the election board and a preliminary decision to reach out to as many of those voters as possible and ask them to recast their ballots during early voting.

On Halloween, the election board again met to discuss the matter in a meeting that degenerated into a shouting match. Stankiewicz tried unsuccessfully to pass a resolution that the ballots be counted as-is instead of having people come back in.

“I realized it was becoming chaos,” said Whitten, who, like several other officials, attended the meeting, which he said descended into “screaming and a blame game.”

Still concerned about the staffing for the election, one of the issues brought up at the meeting, Whitten said that, “even after that, we reached out and said do you have what you need.”

Rivas and Commissioner Laura Blaney, D-South, said in the days before the election, there was a lot of “noise” coming out of the voter registration office, but it seemed to be the usual concerns about finding poll workers.

“It was normal noise, normal politics,” Rivas said.

At 10 p.m. the night before the election, Blaney got a text from someone she knows who signed up as a poll worker but still didn’t know where to go on Election Day.

“It was one person, and it’s hard to get things perfect,” Blaney said. “Even then, I didn’t have major alarm.”

By the morning of the election, Blaney, Rivas and many others throughout the county knew there were significant problems. In all, voting places for 13 precincts opened late because poll workers couldn’t get into buildings or not enough workers showed up. One polling place opened 2½ hours late. Two court hearings followed to keep 12 of those polls open a full 12 hours.

Because elections aren’t under the purview of commissioners, Blaney said she had a “really helpless felling” as the scene unfolded.

“We are not set up in any way to solve that problem,” she said. “Once all the polls were open, I breathed a sigh of relief but that didn’t last very long.”

The night of the election it became increasingly apparent that almost 19,000 absentee ballots were not going to be counted at the voters’ precincts of origin. Bengs consulted with Stankiewicz and Ethan Lowe, the election board’s attorney, to figure out what to do, since Martin wasn’t at the county administration building.

“At that point, we had to try to conduct the election and the count the best we could with what we were dealt,” he said.

In the ensuing three days, the election board and commissioners provided ongoing updates on when preliminary results might be released. That occurred around noon on Nov. 9. As per state statute, the election board certified the results on Nov. 16, 10 days after the election, after spending more than 3½ hours going through provisional ballots.

Call for investigation
Throughout the week of the election, a growing number of officials called for an assortment of investigations.

Commissioners brought in the FBI to determine whether the election merited an investigation. Commissioner Jim Biggs, R-North, said then that the potential violations of election law included the chain of custody for ballots brought in from polling places.

Commissioners also called on the Secretary of State’s office to investigate, and for that agency to contact the Indiana State Police. The Valparaiso Democratic Committee asked for an independent investigation, and the Indiana chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union was contacted, too.

“We started to get a lot of calls with people concerned about voter suppression, voter fraud, the big items that take away from the integrity of the election. We felt the need to call an agency that would investigate that. For me, calling the FBI was all about restoring faith in the election,” Blaney said.

Stankiewicz doesn’t suspect the investigations will turn up criminal activity.

“It was total unpreparedness and a lack of knowledge of what’s involved in holding an election. There’s no standard operating procedure for handling an election. There’s no checklist to be checked off,” he said.

The clerk’s office was set up for failure in handling the election from the beginning, sad Jeff Chidester, chair of the county’s Democratic Party, questioning whether anyone had proof that something criminal took place.

“It was sloppy work, incompetence, stubbornness – those are not criminal acts,” he said.

A way forward
Democrat Jessica Bailey takes over as clerk at the start of the new year and officials said she will play a large part in determining how elections are handled going forward.

Candidate filing for the county’s municipal elections starts in January, and officials also have pledged to buy new voting equipment, again with Bailey’s input, so it can get a dry run of sorts next year before the presidential election kicks into gear in 2020.

“I think the duties are very important. Whether or not it’s our office is not clear yet,” she said, adding that decision also will rest with the council and commissioners.

It’s up to the incoming clerk and the election board to determine what the best format for handling the election is, Porter County Republican Party Chair Michael Simpson said, adding he thinks it should stay with the clerk’s office, under a new system.

Rivas said he is encouraged by Bailey, who comes to the office without any baggage, to look at the vehicle that runs the election.

“It needs to be rebuilt,” he said. “Maybe good will come out. I hate to see a voter or a candidate go through this, but maybe this was the only way to get things in line.”

11292018 - News Article - Kozuszek files federal complaint for overtime for election work

Kozuszek files federal complaint for overtime for election work
Chesterton Tribune
November 29, 2018
http://chestertontribune.com/Elections/kozuszek_files_federal_complaint.htm

Democrat Director of Porter County Voter Registration Kathy Kozuszek filed a complaint Tuesday with the U.S. District Court of the Northern District of Indiana alleging that Porter County has violated the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) by not compensating her for overtime, according to a court document.

The defendants named in the complaint are Porter County, Porter County Election Board, Porter County Clerk Karen Martin (individually, and in her capacity as the Clerk and a member of the Election Board), and David Bengs (individually and in his capacity as a member of the Election Board).

Background
Kozuszek and her Republican counterpart Sundae Schoon have historically been paid overtime, but on Oct. 1, 2016, they were reclassified from non-exempt employees, who are compensated for overtime in excess of 40 hours per week, to exempt employees, who are not compensated for overtime. The Porter County Council approved one-time raises for Kozuszek and Schoon as a compromise.

Kozuszek made a request to receive overtime pay for hours worked during the 2016 general election through her lawyer, Ivan Bodensteiner, on Feb. 12 of this year.

At a March 8 Election Board meeting, the Board voted 2-1, with Democratic member J.J. Stankiewicz dissenting, to transfer election duties to Martin. Part of Stankiewicz’s dissent was the accusation that the move was blatant retaliation for Kozuszek’s request for overtime pay. Stankiewicz also objected to Martin running the election while she was on the ballot running for County Auditor.

Bengs, at the time, said the move brought Porter County election procedures into compliance with state law, as Porter County was at that time the only County where the Voter Registration office ran elections.

The Complaint
Through her lawyer, Kozuszek’s Nov. 27 complaint alleges that her reclassification was a violation of the FLSA because it was a cost saving measure for the County that came with no change in her duties, which have included for nearly 18 years running the elections in Porter County.

The complaint also alleges that the Porter County Election Board’s decision to transfer election duties to the Clerk was retaliation in response to her request for overtime pay.

The complaint says, “As a result of the retaliatory transfer to the Porter County Clerk, the November 2018 election in Porter County was a well-publicized embarrassment, with several Porter county officials attributing the mismanagement of the election to the defendant Martin and her lack of experience in conducting an election.”

The complaint continues, “In an effort to mitigate the failures of the Porter County Clerk, Kozuszek worked several hours of overtime, and the election results were finally announced around mid-day on November, 9, 2018, several days after the election on November 6, 2018.”

“As a result of the willful, continuing illegal actions of the defendants, Kozuszek has been deprived of compensation to which she is entitled and has suffered mental and emotional distress, as well as physical health problems,” according to the complaint.

Kozuszek seeks relief including: “a declaratory judgment determining that the challenged actions of the defendants violated federal and state law;” “equitable relief requiring the defendants to compensate the plaintiff for the overtime she worked, including statutory penalties, and future overtime;” “compensatory damages and liquidated damages and punitive damages from the individual defendants, in an amount to be determined by the jury;” and costs/attorney fees, according to the complaint.

11292018 - News Article - Officials: Porter County election director bailed on job before she was removed

Officials: Porter County election director bailed on job before she was removed
NWI Times
November 29, 2018
https://www.nwitimes.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/officials-porter-county-election-director-bailed-on-job-before-she/article_f98d1920-9d49-523e-a410-9bd8926a2490.html

VALPARAISO — In a December 2017 email, Kathy Kozuszek told officials running elections was "not our job."

"That email made it clear that the voter registration office would no longer be running the elections," said David Bengs, chairman of the Porter County Election Board.

The Election Board soon after moved the responsibility of running elections from the Porter County Voter Registration office, where Kozuszek works, to the Porter County Clerk's office.

In a federal lawsuit filed earlier this week, Kozuszek contends election responsibilities were removed from the voter registration to clerk's office in retaliation for her requesting overtime pay from the county. The request for overtime pay came after the employee status of Kozuszek, the Democrat director in the voter registration office, and Sundae Schoon, the Republican director, was changed from "non-exempt" to "exempt." The change denied the two payment of overtime.

Kozuszek also contends moving the election responsibility to the clerk's office was the direct cause of the problems within the Nov. 6 election, delaying vote counts for about three days.

Kozuszek's attorney, Ivan Bodensteiner, of Valparaiso, said Bengs and others are not interpreting Kozuszek's email correctly.

"It certainly was not a refusal to run the elections. It was not an indication she wouldn't do the job," said Bodensteiner, adding the email does not change the veracity of the lawsuit.

County Council President Andy Bozak, R-1st, agreed with Bengs, saying when the email was forwarded to the County Council he took it as "giving her notice" and she was no longer going to be involved in running elections in the county.

In the email, Kozuszek tells members of the Election Board and the Republican and Democratic Party chairmen that elections in Porter County are being run in violation of state law. She included attachments of state code outlining the responsibilities of both the Election Board and voters registration office.

"Sundae and I have conducted all elections for Porter County operating outside the scope of the law. NO more for me!" Kozuszek writes.

She also suggests the Election Board hire deputy election commissioners in lieu of elections being run by her office. She dissuades the board from giving the authority to the county clerk, which the Election Board did about two months later.

"Make the elections in Porter County legal!  I don't relish the thought of turning potential candidates away from the Voters Registration office when they come in to file for office by sending them to our absent (from any and all elections) clerk, or (Porter County Election Board members) Dave (Bengs) and JJ (Stankiewicz). If the decision is made to ask for Deputy Election Commissioners it must be done soon and in a public meeting per Indiana State Statute," Kozuszek wrote.

Bodensteiner said Kozuszek didn't bring up anything new in the discussion of Porter County elections in the email. Others had raised the same issue of changing who ran elections to comply with state law, several times in the past, but nothing was done then.

11292018 - News Article - Lawsuit claims Porter County election chaos caused by retaliation

Lawsuit claims Porter County election chaos caused by retaliation
NWI Times
November 29, 2018
https://www.nwitimes.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/lawsuit-claims-porter-county-election-chaos-caused-by-retaliation/article_787dcf2b-4fe0-5f44-85dd-ba79b2c9265f.html

HAMMOND — Retaliation against a county employee could be at the base of this year's election debacle in Porter County, according to a federal lawsuit.

Kathy Kozuszek, the Democrat representative in the Porter County Voter Registration Office, has filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court claiming her fight for overtime pay led to the voter registration office being stripped of its responsibilities to run elections. Instead, she contends, the responsibility was put into the hands of the Porter County clerk.

Kozuszek names the county, Porter County Election Board, Porter County Clerk Karen Martin and Porter County Election Board Chairman David Bengs as defendants in the lawsuit.

"As a result of the retaliatory transfer to the Porter County Clerk, the November 2018 election in Porter County was a well-publicized embarrassment, with several Porter County officials attributing the mismanagement of the election to defendant Martin and her lack of experience in conducting an election. In fact, several county officials called for Martin's immediate resignation," reads the filing by Kozuszek's attorney, Ivan E. Bodensteiner, of Valparaiso.

In the lawsuit, Kozuszek contends everything was fine until the last quarter of 2016, when the county changed her employee status from "nonexempt" to "exempt" to save the county money. As a "nonexempt" employee, she received overtime. 

In February 2018, county attorneys were notified they were in violation of the Federal Labor Standards Act for refusing to pay her overtime for the time she worked over 40 hours each week.

She also contends the action violated the First and 14th amendments.

Less than a month later, according to the lawsuit, the Porter County Election Board, "with encouragement from members of the Porter County Council, took retaliatory action" by transferring election-related duties from her office to that of Martin.

The Nov. 6 Porter County election was plagued with issues, including a lack of poll workers, which caused some polls to open late. A court order opened the polls for the full 12-hour voting period, but that and other issues resulted in vote totals not being released until three days after the election.

Kosuszek is seeking a declaratory judgment against the defendants, compensation for overtime she worked and future overtime, compensatory damages, liquidated damages and punitive damages and costs, including attorney fees. She is also demanding a jury trial in the matter.