Felon ex-mayor to make old argument with new judge
KPCnews.com
December 26, 2019
https://www.kpcnews.com/news/state/article_b3aeef1a-037a-576e-b8db-5fed6cefb740.html
HAMMOND — Defense lawyers seeking to clear former Portage Mayor James E. Snyder of public corruption charges are replaying some old arguments for a new federal judge.
Snyder’s legal team is asking Chief U.S. District Court Judge Theresa L. Springmann to dismiss a tax evasion conviction and the remaining bribery count still against him.
They do so less than three weeks after U.S. District Court Judge Joseph Van Bokkelen instructed them not to demand judicial reconsideration of his recent decision to uphold Snyder’s guilty verdict on a felony tax evasion conviction and granting a new trial on a count of felony bribery.
But Van Bokkelen, based in Hammond federal court, isn’t the judge of the case anymore. He left, with little explanation three weeks ago, and Springmann had to take it over.
Snyder’s lawyers are greeting the new judge with arguments they previously made to Van Bokkelen — that the charges against Snyder must be dismissed because they are tainted by prosecutors' miscues and misconduct.
The government has yet to respond, and the judge has yet to rule in favor or against the defense motions.
Federal prosecutors first charged Snyder in November 2016 with two bribery counts and one tax evasion count.
A jury heard the case against Snyder over 19 days earlier this year.
Jurors acquitted Snyder of one bribery count alleging he corruptly arranged for the city of Portage to award public vendor contracts for towing services.
Jurors found Snyder guilty Feb. 14 of the other bribery count, that he corruptly arranged for Portage to award garbage truck purchases. The jury also convicted Snyder of obstructing the Internal Revenue Service’s collection of income taxes by falsifying documents to conceal from the IRS the true financial status of his private business ventures.
Those two verdicts removed Snyder from public office.
His defense team pressed Van Bokkelen over the course of the next nine months to either acquit or grant a new trial.
The defense argued there was insufficient evidence to support the guilty verdicts and that misconduct by federal prosecutors denied Snyder a fair trial.
Van Bokkelen ruled Nov. 27 that Snyder deserves a new trial on the garbage truck bribery count.
The judge stopped short of condemning prosecutors for misconduct. But Van Bokkelen did conclude “gamesmanship” by the prosecution prevented the jury from hearing testimony from the former owners of the truck dealership, who paid Snyder $13,000.
Snyder’s defense team argues Steve and Bob Buha, owners of Great Lakes Peterbilt, would have convinced a jury, if they testified, that they didn’t pay Snyder a bribe, but rather for legitimate consulting services he had earned in working for Great Lakes.
They now argue to the new judge the prosecutorial irregularities cannot be cured by a new trial, so the bribery count must be dismissed, making a new trial unnecessary.
Federal prosecutors may choose to dismiss the bribery count on their own. They have asked for time to review that bribery count before deciding whether to proceed on it with a new jury.
Although Van Bokkelen upheld the tax count, Snyder’s lawyers argue the violations they allege against Snyder are so old, the government waited too long to bring their case to court.
Snyder’s defense lawyers made a similar argument about Snyder’s alleged tax violations being too stale last year.
Van Bokkelen ruled against them last January, stating the tax count alleges more recent violations, so federal prosecutors were still within their deadline to charge Snyder.
However, Snyder’s team now argues federal prosecutors still have a deadline problem on the tax case because the evidence at Snyder’s trial didn’t prove Snyder committed any tax violations within the last six years.
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