Tow operator pleads guilty in bribery scheme, will cooperate against Portage mayor
Chicago Tribune
January 11, 2019
https://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/post-tribune/news/ct-ptb-cortina-towing-guilty-plea-st-0112-story.html
A Portage tow operator in undercover recordings said he was “not gonna go sing.”
On Friday the tow operator changed his tune.
John Cortina, 79, of Kustom Auto Body in Portage, pleaded guilty to charges that he allegedly paid bribes to Portage Mayor James Snyder to secure a city towing contract for himself and a confidential source cooperating with the FBI. The charges say Cortina allegedly gave Snyder checks for $10,000 and $2,000 to get the spot on the city’s towing list.
“Are you pleading guilty on your own free will?” asked Judge Joseph Van Bokkelen.
“On my own free will,” Cortina said.
Van Bokkelen asked if Cortina committed the crimes described in the indictment.
“Yes, sir,” Cortina said.
Cortina’s guilty plea came days before Snyder’s public corruption trial begins in Hammond’s federal court.
“Mr. Snyder never solicited or accepted any bribes from anyone at any time,” said the mayor’s defense team, in a statement Friday morning.
“Mr. Cortina's plea is of no consequence to the defense of Mr. Snyder. The plea is unremarkable given Mr. Cortina's age,” the statement said. “Mr. Snyder and his defense team look forward to exonerating Mr. Snyder during the trial that begins next Monday.”
In the plea agreement filed Thursday night, Cortina said, “At all times, I knew this $12,000 payment to Snyder was a bribe given specifically in exchange for Snyder giving me and ‘Individual A’ a part of the Portage towing.”
Snyder has denied the charges and has said that the money was a campaign loan.
“At no time did Snyder and I discuss this $12,000 being a loan,” Cortina said, in the agreement. “The word ‘loan’ with the initials ‘JS” written on the $10,000 check were not written by me.”
Defense attorney Kevin Milner went through the elements of the crime with Cortina, and asked if the he perceived Snyder’s comments about money as requesting a bribe.
“Yes,” Cortina said.
Milner asked if Cortina considered the $12,000 payment to be a bribe.
“Yes,” Cortina said.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Philip Benson said Cortina got to know Snyder when the mayor was making his first mayoral run. Benson said Cortina gave legitimate campaign donates, organized fundraisers, put up signs, distributed literature and even drove Snyder to events.
Benson said Cortina would go to dinner with Snyder and members of his administration after City Council meetings.
“He was, in essence, the guy who got stuck paying the bill,” Benson said.
When Cortina first started asking Snyder about getting on the tow list with a new partner, Benson said, he thought the mayor kept putting him off.
In 2016, a confidential source recorded conversations with Cortina where he was told to pay Snyder to get on the city’s towing list, according to court documents.
Cortina, in court documents, said that as he talked with Snyder to get on the list, the mayor would say, “it takes time, we’ll see, let me work on it.”
“It appeared to me that Snyder kept delaying his decision whether or not to let me back on the tow list,” Cortina said, in the agreement.
By January 2016, Cortina said the situation had changed. The tow operator said as he continued to talk with Snyder, the mayor allegedly started talking about needing money for his campaign fund. Cortina and “Individual A” kicked in the $6,000 each to allegedly give Snyder $2,000 for his roundtable group and $10,000 to the mayor’s campaign committee.
After getting the money, Cortina told Snyder, in a recorded conversation, “Christmas is here.”
“Within a few days, I spoke with Snyder regarding getting on the tow list,” Cortina said in the agreement. “Snyder no longer put off the answers to my towing question.”
“Snyder now indicated that we were all good, and that we would soon be towing for Portage,” Cortina added.
Shortly after Cortina reportedly gave Snyder the $12,000, Benson said the mayor no longer put him off.
“It was you get the towing, you’re on the list – after the payment of $12,000,” Benson said.
Van Bokkelen asked if Cortina agreed with Benson’s description.
“Yes, sir,” Cortina said.
During one recorded conversation, Cortina reported said that Snyder called the money “loans” but he called it “juice money.”
Snyder’s attorneys dismissed Cortina’s comments in the recorded conversations as “private puffery,” according to court documents.
Cortina was indicted alongside Snyder in November 2016.
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 Service laws.
Cortina’s sentencing is tentatively set for April 22, according to court documents.
No comments:
Post a Comment