Recordings: Alleged payments to Portage mayor 'juice' for towing contract
Chicago Tribune
November 19, 2018
https://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/post-tribune/news/ct-ptb-snyder-trial-undercover-recordings-st-1120-story.html
Federal prosecutors aim to use a series of undercover recordings during trial to prove how Portage Mayor James Snyder allegedly solicited bribes to award a city towing contract.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Philip Benson on Monday filed an 83-page document in federal court asking a judge to allow them to use recordings between a tow operator cooperating with the FBI and John Cortina, of Kustom Auto Body in Portage, who is Snyder’s co-defendant in the corruption case, to show the conspiracy to solicit bribes.
Snyder’s defense attorney, Jackie Bennett, two days before, had already asked a judge to block the admission of those recordings after federal prosecutors failed to meet a deadline to file the request.
“The government’s evidence will establish that defendants Snyder and Cortina engaged in, or aided and abetted in, a conspiracy or joint venture, to commit bribery through the payment and receipt of funds disguised as campaign contributions to further the personal and political interests of the defendants,” Benson said, in court documents.
Benson said that in 2016, a confidential source, who operated a tow company, recorded conversations with Cortina where he was told to reportedly pay Snyder to get on the city’s towing list. Benson said that the source and Cortina allegedly each gave Snyder $6,000, in check form, to the Portage mayor’s campaign fund and “roundtable committee,” according to court documents.
During one recorded conversation, Cortina reportedly said that Snyder call the money “loans” but he called it “juice money.”
During an Aug. 9, 2016 meeting, the confidential source recorded a conversation with Cortina where the two discussed the $12,000 payment and getting on Portage’s tow list, according to court documents.
“Uh, I asked the mayor last night if he needs anything. He says he doesn’t need anything,” Cortina said, on the Aug. 9 recording. “So forget it. We gave $12,000.”
“Yeah, I know,” the source said.
“We gave $12,000. I’m, I’m gonna (unintelligible),” Cortina said.
“We, and we gave $12,000 and we got nothing,” the source said.
“Yeah, I know,” Cortina said.
“Until today,” the source said.
“Well, ‘til today,” Cortina replied.
On Saturday, Bennett asked a judge to bar prosecutors from using the recordings during the trial because the filing was not submitted by the deadline. Prosecutors had asked a judge to file the proffer on Nov. 16, according to court records, but did not file the document until Nov. 19.
“Mr. Snyder believes the court’s deadlines matter, particularly where the government sets a deadline for itself, representing it will meet the deadline,” Bennett wrote. “Mr. Snyder does not believe deadlines are meek suggestions. If deadlines matter, it is now too late...”
Bennett said the missed deadline should deem the recordings of Cortina inadmissible.
As preparations for the trial continue, Bennett said the continued delay by the prosecutors with filing the proffer, which is supposed to describe their theory of the case. has complicated their work.
Bennett said, as of Saturday, that the government’s theory “remains a secret.”
“Mr. Snyder cannot prepare a defense to a secret case,” Bennett said. “He cannot finalize preparing cross-examination questions, expert disclosures, witness lists, exhibit lists, discovery production, or any other element of trial preparation, against a secret case.”
Snyder’s trial is set to begin in January, according to court records.
Snyder and Cortina 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 allegedly accepted two checks, one for $10,000 and another for $2,000, from Cortina and “Individual A.”
Snyder received an additional bribery indictment for alleged accepting $13,000 in connection with a Portage Board of Works contract.
Additional charges allege that Snyder obstructed Internal Revenue Service laws.
Snyder and Cortina both pleaded not guilty to the charges, according to court documents.
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