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.
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