Feds seek to revoke Snyder's bond
Prosecutors ask that former Portage mayor be ordered to report to prison within week
Post-Tribune, The (Merrillville, IN)
June 21, 2023
Having failed at his most recent attempt to have his federal convictions for bribery and obstructing the IRS overturned, former Portage Mayor James Snyder now faces revocation of his bond and being ordered to surrender to the custody of the Federal Bureau of Prisons within the week.
A Tuesday filing by federal prosecutors in the U.S. District Court in Hammond asks Judge Matthew F. Kennelly to revoke Snyder's bond and order Snyder to surrender.
"In view of the fact that this matter has been pending for a considerable period, the government respectfully requests that the defendant be ordered to surrender within seven days, on or before June 27, 2023," according to the filing.
The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago rejected Snyder's bid to have his convictions dismissed in a June 15 ruling. First indicted in November 2016, his case has dragged on with two trials and convictions on two of the three charges he faced.
Snyder did not return a request for comment. He had been sentenced to 21 months in federal prison and one year of supervised release but was allowed to remain free as his appeal made its way to a conclusion.
"Now that the judgment has been affirmed, it is appropriate to revoke the defendant's bond and have the defendant surrender to the custody of the Federal Bureau of Prisons," the four-page filing notes, adding that permitting bond during a pending appeal appears only "when appeal presents a 'substantial question of law' likely to result in reversal or new trial.' "
Snyder received neither of those things in his most recent attempt at an appeal.
Snyder, a Republican, was first elected mayor in 2011 and was reelected in 2015. He was indicted on two bribery counts, involving garbage truck purchases and towing contracts, and one related to the IRS in November 2016.
The last year of his second term was cut short in February 2019 when a federal jury convicted him 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 from the IRS when he owed personal and business taxes.
He was acquitted on the second bribery charge involving the towing contracts, a charge that generated a guilty plea from co-defendant John Cortina.
Snyder asked for and received a new trial on the bribery conviction involving the garbage trucks, and that trial, in March 2021, also resulted in a jury conviction.
Snyder filed another appeal in October 2021 in an attempt to have both of his convictions overturned and the court granted him bond pending that appeal.
In the bribery case, Snyder argued that his right to a speedy trial was being violated; that the bribe he received for a garbage truck contract was in fact payment for services he provided to Great Lakes Peterbilt, the firm that sold the city the garbage trucks; and that there was insufficient evidence for a conviction.
"Given irregularities in the bidding process, Snyder's contemporaneous contacts with the Buhas (unique among bidders), the timing of the $13,000 payment, the dubious explanations offered for the payment, and the lack of corroborating evidence for Snyder's claim that he was paid for consulting, a reasonable jury could conclude that Snyder accepted the check as a bribe or gratuity for steering the contracts to GLPB," the appellate judges noted.
As far as the IRS case, based on the government's argument that Snyder purposefully hid assets and income from the IRS after failing to pay personal and payroll taxes in a timely fashion by setting up a second business to funnel income without reporting it, the appellate court ruled that "sufficient evidence supported the jury's verdict."
Snyder had argued that the statute of limitations had passed on the IRS charges and that there was insufficient evidence for a jury to convict him.
Snyder has a pending federal lawsuit against current Portage Mayor Sue Lynch and Dan Whitten, the city attorney, alleging they coached Randy Reeder, a witness in the bribery case, not to meet with Snyder or his legal team.
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