Snyder ordered to prison in Oct.
Former Portage mayor must begin 21-month sentence
Post-Tribune, The (Merrillville, IN)
June 24, 2023
https://infoweb.newsbank.com/
The saga of the federal court case against disgraced former Portage Mayor James Snyder inched closer to a conclusion when a judge on Friday ordered him to report to the federal Bureau of Prisons on Oct. 16 to begin serving his 21-month sentence on convictions for bribery and defrauding the IRS.
His sentence also includes one year on supervised release. His sentences on each conviction are to run concurrently.
After Snyder's most recent attempt at an appeal was tossed out by the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago on June 15, federal prosecutors filed a motion on June 20 to revoke his bond and have him report to begin his sentence within seven days because he could only remain free on bond pending his appeal.
But defense attorney Andrea Gambino in a June 21 filing said that the appeals process still had some life to it and that, throughout Snyder's case, which began with his indictment in November 2016, he had never posed a flight risk or a danger to others, so he should therefore remain free on bond in the meantime.
In the end, U.S. District Judge Matthew Kennelly gave Snyder, 45, four months to turn himself in while admitting that there was the slimmest of chances he could gain some relief through the appellate courts on the bribery conviction, but not the one for the IRS charge. The ruling came during a brief telephonic conference.
Kennelly also said that it's been three years since Snyder's trial and the case has been going on for "longer than that."
Assistant U.S. Attorney Amarjeet Bhachu noted the conviction on the IRS charge and said he "can't see any reason under the sun" why an appeal on that charge would go forward.
Kennelly agreed and said the tax charge is "not something the Supreme Court is likely to take up."
In her filing requesting that Snyder's bond remain in place, Gambino said her client will be asking for a panel rehearing on both counts, and that Snyder "has received offers from several large firms with Supreme Court practices, to assist him in preparing a petition for a writ of certiorari to the United States Supreme Court," or a review by the higher court, on the bribery charge.
She added that the "offers express the view that the Supreme Court is likely to grant" review of the issue.
During Friday's hearing, Gambino reiterated that Snyder's sentence on the two convictions are to run concurrently. If he were to go into custody now and start serving his sentence on the IRS charge while his appeal of the bribery case went forward and he were to lose the appeal, he could end up serving the sentences consecutively instead.
"It would be remanded for resentencing," Kennelly said, later ruling that Snyder is to surrender to the Bureau of Prisons by 2 p.m. on the third Monday in October.
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.
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.
Lynch and Whitten have filed to have the case dismissed.
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