Former Portage mayor gets new attorney; new sentencing set for October
Chicago Tribune
August 20, 2021
Former Portage Mayor James Snyder received approval to hire a new attorney and was granted an extension on his sentencing hearing during a teleconference hearing Friday.
Snyder was scheduled to be sentenced Wednesday, but the hearing was pushed to Oct. 13 so that his new attorney, Andrea Gambino, who represented ex-Calumet Township employee Ethel Shelton, has time to review the case.
Gambino will replace Jackie M. Bennett Jr., Vivek R. Hadley and Jayna M. Cacioppo, of Taft Stettinius & Hollister LLP “for the purpose of sentencing,” according to court records. Bennett and Hadley “do not object to the motion and are willing to support counsel Gambino to facilitate the transition and enable counsel Gambino to prepare for Mr. Snyder’s sentencing in an efficient and timely manner.”
In the court document, Gambino requested at least a 60-day continuation of the sentencing to give her time to review records.
“In view of the length of the government’s investigation, its decision to try Mr. Snyder twice, and the disruption occasioned by a year and one-half of living through a global pandemic, Mr. Snyder’s request for a delay in sentencing to ensure his full preparation with new counsel will not prejudice the government,” Gambino wrote in the court filing.
In February 2019, a jury convicted Snyder, 43, 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 assets from the IRS while owing back personal and business taxes. The jury acquitted Snyder on a third count that alleged he took a $12,000 bribe to get a company on Portage’s tow list.
On Nov. 27, 2019, Judge Joseph Van Bokkelen granted a new trial on the soliciting bribes charge. The retrial was heard by Judge Matthew F. Kennelly, from the Northern District of Illinois, who is the third judge to review the case.
In March, after a two-week retrial, a federal court jury found Snyder guilty of soliciting bribes.
During a teleconference Friday, Kennelly granted the motion for Gambino to represent Snyder. When asked if he supported changing his representation, Snyder, who attended the teleconference, said “yeah.”
Gambino will have until Oct. 4 to make a sentencing recommendation. In a previous court filing, Bennett requested “a below guidelines, noncustodial sentence” because “the defense still believes Mr. Snyder should be acquitted as a matter of law.”
Prosecutors stated that Snyder should be sentenced “within the applicable guideline range,” which is 46 to 57 months.
“There is also a need for specific deterrence in this case. Throughout this investigation and prosecution, Snyder has denied his guilt, expressed no remorse for his conduct and maintained that he did nothing wrong,” according to the prosecutor’s sentencing recommendation.
Given his schedule, Kennelly said, “the latest date” he could offer for sentencing is Oct. 13, which all the parties agreed to. Gambino said she would present three or four character witness, and one witness that is “something more.”
When Kennelly asked what this “something more” witness would discuss, Gambino said the witness would address Randy Reeder, who was the assistant superintendent of streets and sanitation at the time of Snyder’s November 2016 indictment. During Snyder’s retrial, Reeder said that Snyder told him to recant statements he made to the grand jury.
In February 2019, Reeder, who is now superintendent of the streets and sanitation department for the city, said he wanted to recant what he told a grand jury regarding Snyder’s push to purchase garbage trucks.
Reeder said that after his grand jury testimony Snyder called him to know what Reeder was asked about and what his answers were. Snyder asked him to retract those statements because “they were not helpful to” his case, Reeder said.
During the Friday teleconference, Kennelly said that “one way or another, whatever (Gambino) plan(s) to do,” Snyder will be sentenced Oct. 13.
“I am sentencing Mr. Snyder on the afternoon of Oct. 13. Period. Full stop,” Kennelly said.
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