Sentencing delayed again in former Portage Mayor Snyder's federal bribery case
Jul 12, 2021
HAMMOND — Sentencing has been delayed again for former Portage Mayor James Snyder, who was found guilty a second time in March on a federal bribery charge.
The July 16 sentencing was postponed until Aug. 25 because U.S. District Judge Matthew Kennelly of the Northern District of Illinois, who was brought in to oversee the local case, is unavailable due to jury trials, according to court records.
The same reason was given for the first delay in sentencing from July 1.
Just a week ago, Kennelly granted Snyder's legal team a one-week delay to respond to a request for an enhanced sentence based on claims by the government that Snyder obstructed justice by asking a witness to recant his statements, court records show.
That filing deadline is Thursday and Kennelly said that date was unaffected by the most recent delay in sentencing.
The defense had said last week it had no intention of seeking a delay in the July 16 sentencing and did not believe the filing extension would impact any other case deadlines.
At issue is the government's claim that Snyder encouraged then-Assistant Portage Superintendent of Streets and Sanitation Randy Reeder to retract certain statements "regarded as unhelpful to the defendant," the defense said. The defense said it believes the claim is "unsupported in the record."
Reeder, who was granted prosecutorial immunity during Snyder's second bribery trial in March, told jurors Snyder had asked him to retract the unhelpful testimony. He referred to Snyder as his friend and then-boss.
"A proper response will require the review of voluminous transcripts of prior testimony by Mr. Reeder," Snyder's legal defense argued.
Federal prosecutors said recently they are seeking to impose a lengthy sentence on Snyder for bribery and tax evasion.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Jill Koster has calculated the proposed sentence at between 46 to 57 months.
Koster argues that justice demands Snyder’s imprisonment to deter other elected officials from public corruption.
She said the government has twice proved Snyder, 43, a Republican, solicited and accepted a $13,000 bribe in 2014 in return for steering a $1.125 million garbage collection contract to the local Great Lakes Peterbilt company.
She said Snyder also obstructed the Internal Revenue Service’s efforts to collect unpaid taxes on a private mortgage company he ran.
He was indicted in late 2016 and was first found guilty in early 2019 of the bribery charge and federal tax violations. He is awaiting sentencing on the tax violations, but the bribery verdict was overturned later in 2019 and the March retrial was held.
