Prosecutors: 'No support' to dismiss Portage mayor's corruption charges
April 17, 2018
Post-Tribune
http://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/post-tribune/news/ct-ptb-snyder-motion-dismiss-response-st-0418-story.html
A federal prosecutor is arguing that indicted Portage Mayor James Snyder has not proved that the handling of emails warrants the dismissal of the corruption charges he faces or the disqualification of the trial team.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Jill Koster on Monday said Snyder and his defense attorney, Jackie Bennett Jr., have failed to show how emails they say were subject to attorney-client privilege but seen by trial attorneys is grounds to dismiss the charges against the Portage mayor for infringing on his constitutional rights.
“… Even if defendant were able to meet his burden, he cites no support for the proposition that indictments ought to be dismissed or prosecution teams disqualified when attorney work-product is revealed,” Koster said in her response.
Koster said there’s been no evidence that the emails in question were privileged, according to court documents, and that the defense has not shown any prejudice as a result of those communications being viewed by the trial team.
The allegations against the prosecutors say email communications between Snyder, defense attorney Thomas Dogan, and Thomas Kirsch II, who was then the mayor’s defense attorney before being appointed as U.S. attorney, were seized in 2015, according to court documents.
Judge Joseph Van Bokkelen has not ruled on the email issue, and during a march hearing said it did not appear any of the communications looked like a “smoking gun.”
Kirsch has recused himself from Snyder’s case, according to court documents, and U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Illinois would oversee and manage local prosecutors handling the case.
Snyder and John Cortina, of Kustom Auto Body in Portage, were charged in November 2016 with allegedly violating a federal bribery statue. Federal prosecutors said the mayor allegedly solicited money from Cortina and “Individual A” and gave them a towing contract for Portage.
Snyder received an additional bribery indictment for alleged accepting $13,000 in connection with a Board of Works Contract, and allegedly obstructing internal revenue laws.
Snyder and Cortina both pleaded not guilty to the charges, according to court documents.
During the discovery process for Snyder’s trial, Bennett said it was found that documents reviewed by the prosecutors contained confidential attorney-client material, according to court documents. Bennett said federal investigators used a “taint team” to review the email communication seized, according to court documents, but that review failed to shield all privileged communications from the trial team.
Bennett said when the defense received the emails quarantined by federal investigators for being privileged, several of those were also found in possession of the trial team.
“It is now beyond dispute, the government’s trial team has admitted it viewed communications that the taint team had previously deemed confidential,” Bennett wrote. “Worse, the subject matter of those privileged communication relates directly to core allegations charged in the indictment.”
Koster said it appears that versions of those documents were marked as both privileged and non-privileged, according to the motion, but those discrepancies do not change the fact those communications should not be shielded.
“…Any such errors by the government do not rise to the level of a violation of the defendant’s constitutional rights and certainly not a violation that warrants dismissal of the indictment, especially where defendant still has not explained how he has been prejudiced by the government’s actions,” Koster wrote.
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