05112018 - News Article - Portage mayor's public corruption trial push back to undetermined date

Portage mayor's public corruption trial push back to undetermined date
NWI Times
May 11, 2018
http://www.nwitimes.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/portage-mayor-s-public-corruption-trial-push-back-to-undetermined/article_065d1b55-8c89-5ab3-988f-850fac8a78c0.html

HAMMOND — The public corruption trial of Portage Mayor James Snyder has been pushed back again.

In a filing Friday morning, the June 4 trial date has been vacated and will be reset by a separate order, according to documents. Snyder's defense attorney, Jackie M. Bennett Jr., of Indianapolis, had filed a motion on Wednesday asking for a continuance of the trial to no earlier than Oct. 1.

U.S. District Court Judge Joseph S. Van Bokkelen also issued an order to continue a hearing which began Thursday to 10:30 a.m. Thursday, May 24.

On Thursday, defense and prosecutors spent nearly six hours behind closed doors giving testimony about emails Snyder contends are attorney/client privilege and work product between himself and his former defense attorney Thomas Kirsch II, now the U.S. district attorney for the Northern District of Indiana.

In a motion filed by Snyder in February, he contends that prosecutors read those emails and that action has prejudiced his right to a fair trial, violating his Sixth Amendment rights. He has asked the court to either dismiss the three-count indictment brought in November 2016 or disqualify the prosecuting team.

Van Bokkelen closed the hearing on Thursday after both prosecuting and defense attorneys argued it would be in the best interest of the case not to allow prosecutors who had not previously viewed the emails or the general public, including media, to view them at this point in the process. No decision was made at that hearing, which will ultimately decide if Snyder's rights were violated.