02112020 - News Article - Former Portage mayor’s bribery trial moved to April

Former Portage mayor’s bribery trial moved to April
NWI Times
February 11, 2020
https://www.nwitimes.com/news/local/porter/portage/former-portage-mayor-s-bribery-trial-moved-to-april/article_ddd980f7-392f-5abd-8224-2f30873dda3e.html

HAMMOND — A federal judge is giving prosecution and defense attorneys an additional month to prepare for the next public corruption trial of former Portage Mayor James Snyder.

U.S. District Judge Theresa Springmann reset the beginning of Snyder’s jury trial on a bribery count from March 23 to April 27.

Both the government and Snyder’s defense team requested the additional time to prepare, and the judge agreed a delay was needed.

Snyder is pleading not guilty to allegations he solicited a bribe from the former owners of a Portage trucking sale firm in return for steering the city of Portage to buy a used truck from that firm for garbage collection.

A jury heard evidence in the case over 19 days early last year.

Jurors found Snyder guilty of a corrupt truck purchase as well as obstructing the Internal Revenue Service’s collection of income taxes by falsifying documents, but the jury acquitted Snyder of another bribery count involving towing services for Portage.

Snyder’s defense team argued the two guilty verdicts were unjust and that the former mayor should be acquitted of them as well, or at least granted a new trial before a different jury.

U.S. District Court Judge Joseph Van Bokkelen, who had presided over last year’s jury trial, gave the defense a split decision.

He ruled Nov. 27 that Snyder deserved to have a new jury hear evidence on the garbage truck bribery charge. Van Bokkelen upheld the guilty verdict in Snyder’s tax evasion charge.

Van Bokkelen bowed out of the case after that ruling. Springmann took over the case in December. She declined demands by the defense and prosecution to upset Van Bokkelen's final rulings.