03012019 - News Article - Ex-Portage mayor convicted of bribery seeks new trial, claiming insufficient evidence and prosecutorial misconduct

Ex-Portage mayor convicted of bribery seeks new trial, claiming insufficient evidence and prosecutorial misconduct
Chicago Tribune
March 01, 2019
https://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/post-tribune/news/ct-ptb-snyder-acquittal-motion-st-0302-story.html

Portage’s convicted former mayor wants a federal judge to throw out two convictions and order a new trial, citing prosecutorial misconduct and insufficient evidence.

Defense attorneys for James Snyder on Thursday filed a request for a new trial and made a renewed push for a judge to acquit the former mayor of bribery and obstructing the IRS. The defense argued that by not calling two men who paid Snyder $13,000, for what Snyder said was consulting services, after a deal to sell Portage garbage trucks, the jury did not get to hear a full telling of the events, according to court documents.

“The government went to great lengths to provide only circumstantial evidence, even where it had direct evidence available to it,” said defense attorney Jackie Bennett Jr., in court filings. “As a result, the jury was asked to speculate as to Mr. Snyder’s guilt. A guilty verdict could stem only from the jury piling inference on inference.”

On Feb. 14, a federal jury convicted Snyder of bribery and obstructing the IRS, bringing an end to his 19-day trial. Snyder was convicted of taking a $13,000 bribe in exchange for contracts to sell five garbage trucks to the city, and using a shell company to hide income and assets from the IRS while owning back personal and business taxes.

During the trial, prosecutors did not call the two men who then owned Great Lakes Peterbilt, Bennett said, and the absence of that evidence made the case “insufficient.”

“Beyond not calling the Buhas (Robert and Steve Buha, former owners of Great Lakes Peterbilt), (Assistant U.S. Attorney Jill Koster) revoked their immunity and coerced them into silence, unsubtly hinting that she would attempt to prosecute them for perjury if they repeated their grand jury testimony at Mr. Snyder’s trial,” Bennett said.

Prosecutors say that when Snyder ran for mayor in 2011, he told residents he planned to automate Portage’s trash pickup, but wound up steering contracts for $712,882.50 and another for $425,355 to Great Lakes Peterbilt, which was then owned by the Buhas.

Once those contracts were awarded, Great Lakes Peterbilt paid Snyder $13,000.

Bennett said the Buha brothers could have testified about the work Snyder did for their business. Once the trial start, Bennett said that had revoked the brothers’ immunity, and they intended to invoke their Fifth Amendment rights to avoid incriminating themselves.

Snyder’s defense also questioned the evidence in the obstructing the IRS case.

A second count said that Snyder, while owing tens of thousands of dollars to the IRS, funneled income through a shell company, and failed to disclose any of those assets to the IRS.

The jury acquitted Snyder of a third count that alleged he took a $12,000 bribe to get a company on Portage’s tow list.

Federal prosecutors said the mayor allegedly solicited money from John Cortina, of Kustom Auto Body in Portage, and “Individual A” and gave them a towing contract for Portage.

Cortina, 79, who was indicted alongside the former mayor, in January pleaded guilty to a charge that he paid bribes to Snyder to get a spot on the tow list. Cortina did not testify during the trial, invoking his Fifth Amendment right to not incriminate himself, according to court documents.