Retrial in ex-Portage Mayor James Snyder’s case pushed to March due to concerns about holding a jury trial amid pandemic
POST-TRIBUNE
NOV 25, 2020
The retrial date for former Portage Mayor James Snyder, facing a soliciting bribes charge, has been pushed to March, because of concerns in protecting jurors and courtroom officials amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
U.S. District Court Judge Matthew Kennelly, with the Northern District of Illinois, will now preside over Snyder’s case, after U.S. District Court Chief Judge Theresa Springmann recused herself due to a family emergency.
On Nov. 13, Springmann pushed the trial to “sometime on or after” Jan. 29 following a state general order postponing jury trials through that date. On Wednesday, Kennelly set a jury trial for March 8 because of the recent rise in COVID cases in Indiana.
“I’m not really convinced this is going to safe and feasible from a standpoint of protecting jurors … and lawyers, litigants and court staff,” Kennelly said.
Snyder’s attorney, Jackie Bennett Jr., said he’d be in favor of a bench trial but that he hadn’t discussed it with prosecutors. Kennelly said both sides would have to agree to a bench trial, but whether it is a jury trial or a bench trial “is a matter of indifference to” him.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Jill Koster asked the judge to reconsider the order for a new trial on the soliciting bribes charge. Kennelly said Judge Joseph Van Bokkelen granted a new trial and that he wouldn’t overturn that decision.
“The trial was unfair, and there should be a new trial on this one charge,” Kennelly said.
Snyder’s attorney’s filed a motion Nov. 19 to dismiss the retrial on speedy trial grounds, arguing that any retrial date set after Jan. 30 would be outside the 70-day window provided by the Speedy Trial Act since Nov. 27, 2019, when the new trial order was issued. Prosecutors were given until Dec. 3 to respond to the motion Wednesday.
Snyder’s attorneys have argued that the soliciting bribe charge should be dismissed on the double jeopardy standard because Robert and Steve Buha, former owners of Great Lakes Peterbilt, were granted immunity with “no-notice, mid-trial” following a grand jury testimony that took “the court completely by surprise,” according to court records. With their testimony, “there is a strong likelihood that Mr. Snyder would have been acquitted,” according to court records filed by the defense.
Additionally, Snyder’s attorneys have argued in the filing that the court should use its supervisory power to acquit him because the prosecutors “deprived Mr. Snyder of eyewitnesses as to what happened between him and the Buhas … much of the evidence he had expected to place before the jury.”
Snyder, who was indicted in November 2016, was convicted of taking a $13,000 bribe in exchange for contracts to sell five garbage trucks to the city and using a shell company to hide income assets from the IRS while owing back personal and business taxes. The jury acquitted Snyder of a third count that alleged he took a $12,000 bribe to get a company on Portage’s tow list.
Snyder has agreed to forfeit $13,000 to the federal government, documents show.
Federal prosecutors said Snyder allegedly solicited money from co-defendant John Cortina, of Kustom Auto Body in Portage, and “Individual A” and gave them a towing contract for Portage.
Cortina, 81, in January 2019 pleaded guilty to a charge that he paid bribes to Snyder to get a spot on the tow list. Cortina did not testify during the trial.
Cortina was sentenced Jan. 22 to time served and a $12,000 fine.
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