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"Alexa, What song is former Portage Indiana Mayor James Snyder currently singing?"
No, I am not being cruel - I am justified in making this statement
Former Portage mayor sentenced to 21 months in prison
NWI Times
October 13, 2021
HAMMOND — Nearly five years after he was indicted and following two trials, former Portage Mayor James Snyder was sentenced after a day-long hearing Wednesday to 21 months in prison on federal bribery and tax violation charges.
In imposing the sentence, which is below that recommended in sentencing guidelines, U.S. District Judge Matthew Kennelly said that Snyder's offense appeared to be an "aberration" in an otherwise law-abiding life.
Yet Kennelly, a judge from the Northern District of Illinois, rejected the defense's call for no prison time, saying the sentence was necessary as a deterrent to public corruption.
"It sends a message," Kennelly said of the sentence.
The judge gave Snyder until Jan. 5 to surrender himself to begin his prison term.
The 43-year-old Republican was twice found guilty of soliciting and accepting a $13,000 bribe in 2014 in return for steering a $1.125 million garbage collection contract for the city of Portage to the local Great Lakes Peterbilt company.
Federal prosecutors say he also obstructed the Internal Revenue Service’s efforts to collect unpaid taxes on a private mortgage company he ran.
Snyder had repeatedly asked the judge to spare him from prison. He, instead sought an alternative approach, including a potential term of probation, house arrest, community service and the ability "to work and repay his financial obligations while continuing to support his family," a supplemental sentencing memorandum says.
Federal prosecutors had sought imprisonment for Snyder, arguing that justice demands it to deter other elected officials from public corruption.
In a presentence filing, Snyder urged the court to: "... take into consideration the punishment he already has suffered, the collateral consequences of conviction which negatively impact his life in both the short and long term, the financial consequences for him and his family as a result of this prosecution, as well as the emotional and psychological punishment he has endured when considering the appropriate sentence in this case."
The defense also highlighted what it says are Snyder's contributions to the community and downplayed his offense as, "... at the lowest end of the public corruption scale when compared to others that have taken place within the past ten years in the Northern Districts of Indiana and neighboring Illinois."
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