Former Portage mayor fights back with lawsuit as he awaits word on pending prison term
NWI Times
March 30, 2023
HAMMOND — Former Republican Portage Mayor James Snyder is not sitting quietly as he awaits word from a federal appeals court as to whether he will go to prison for his 2021 bribery and tax violation convictions.
Snyder continues to fight back, this time taking aim at current Democratic Mayor Sue Lynch and city attorney Dan Whitten, accusing each in a federal lawsuit of instructing city employees, including case witness Randall Reeder Jr., not to meet with Snyder and his legal team as they prepared for trial.
"Snyder was made aware of the alleged conduct and instruction during a meeting with former city employees in or around June of 2022 after his second trial," according to the litigation filed on Snyder's behalf by Portage-based attorney Matthew Dogan.
Lynch and Whitten were aware Reeder was a "necessary and the primary witness in the trial of Snyder," the suit says. Reeder was accused by federal officials of "rigging" bids.
Snyder, 45, who has a 21-month prison sentencing hanging over his head, was found guilty twice — most recently in March 2021 — of soliciting and accepting a $13,000 bribe in 2014 in return for steering a $1.125 million contract for the purchase of garbage trucks for the city of Portage to the local Great Lakes Peterbilt company.
Federal prosecutors said he also obstructed the Internal Revenue Service’s efforts to collect unpaid taxes on a private mortgage company he ran.
In response Wednesday to the lawsuit, Whitten said, "The allegations are 100% untrue, are without any merit and are completely baseless. I have no further comment as no further comment is warranted."
Snyder, who was granted the right to remain out of prison while appealing his criminal convictions, is awaiting the outcome of a January hearing before the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago.
Defense attorney Andréa E. Gambino argued the court should vacate Snyder's convictions, in part, because of what she claims was a government intrusion into the attorney-client relationship as it pertains to the seizure of Snyder's personal and professional email accounts as part of the criminal investigation.
Federal prosecutor Debra Bonamici defended the government's multilayer screening process to combat the alleged intrusion.
Snyder's new litigation claims Reeder "did not know the orders given to him from Lynch through Whitten were illegal or wrongful."
Reeder thus refused to meet with Snyder's legal team ahead of the March 2021 trial, "despite his willingness to do so," the suit says.
In a further attempt to intimidate Reeder, Snyder claims the city of Portage refused to cover Reeder's legal expenses as is "usual, customary, and in the regular course of business for the City of Portage to do when litigation stems from employment status."
Lynch and Whitten obviously did not believe Reeder had rigged bids as they both hired and promoted him from assistant street superintendent to street superintendent after Snyder's conviction, the suit says.
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