Former Portage Mayor James Snyder would like to see his bribery charge dismissed with prejudice before sentencing on an IRS charge and for the court to bar prosecutors from re-trying the bribery charge at sentencing.
If the court does not dismiss the bribery charge, Snyder’s attorney Andréa Gambino wrote in a May 23 court filing that the court should grant his Brady motion, which seeks discovery of the Grand Jury record “so that he can supplement his original motion to dismiss with additional evidence that the government did not seek or ask the grand jurors to return an indictment alleging quid pro quo bribery.”
Snyder is scheduled to go to trial for a third time in U.S. District Court in Hammond on a bribery charge involving a $13,000 payment for a garbage truck contract. Currently, the trial is set to begin on Sept. 15, according to court records.
Prosecutors filed court documents May 16 stating that after nearly a decade of court proceedings, Snyder “stands convicted of the felony offense of corruptly obstructing the Internal Revenue Services’ administration of the federal revenue laws,” according to court records.
“At this point, the United States believes the interests of justice are best served by proceeding to sentencing on the current count of conviction for Count 4 (the tax conviction), at which time it intends to present evidence of defendant’s bribery activities as part of its presentation on the factors to be considered in imposing a sentence,” prosecutors wrote.
If Snyder is sentenced on tax conviction, prosecutors will move to dismiss the bribery charge after the judge imposes a sentence.
Prosecutors requested the court to set a sentencing date on the conviction charge within the next 90 days. Gambino wrote Snyder objects to the exclusion of time for 90 days under the Speedy Trial Act “absent pending motions or awaiting a decision by the court.”
The condition of dismissing the bribery charge upon sentencing “holds the defendant (and the court) hostage until the government is satisfied that a sufficient penalty is imposed,” Gambino wrote.
“Apart from pointedly ignoring the Supreme Court’s determination that the conduct for which he was convicted was not a crime, this is neither fair nor just,” Gambino wrote.
The U.S. Supreme Court’s June 26, 2024 decision determined, among other matters, that the payment to Snyder from the Buha brothers, owners of Great Lakes Peterbilt, was a gratuity because Snyder received the money, reportedly for health insurance consulting work, after the business got the garbage truck contracts and not before.
Prosecutors don’t have more evidence today than “at the time of the first sentencing in support of its argument that Mr. Snyder should be sentenced as if the alleged gratuity were a bribe.”
“The government’s continuing attempt to apply the bribery guideline without obtaining a bribery conviction smacks of vindictiveness,” Gambino wrote.
During the trial, prosecutors noted a lack of contracts written between him and the Buhas and said there was no documented proof work was done.
After multiple twists, turns and delays since Snyder was indicted on Nov. 17, 2016, in U.S. District Court in Hammond on two bribery counts and one of obstructing the IRS, a jury found Snyder not guilty on a bribery count involving a towing contract and guilty on the other two counts in March 2021.
The second bribery conviction, over allegations surrounding a $13,000 payment involving around $1 million in contracts for garbage trucks, stood after two trials, only to get overturned when the Supreme Court ruled that the payment was a gratuity, not a bribe, and criminalizing the payment put even routine campaign contributions at the risk of the federal government’s wrath. Overturning Snyder’s conviction had a ripple effect on countless other cases, most notably prominent cases in Illinois, including the trial of ex-House Speaker Michael Madigan and the case of the “ComEd Four” who were convicted of a scheme to bribe him.
Federal prosecutors have described Snyder in their filing as “a thoroughly corrupt public official, twice convicted by a jury of his peers for receiving a $13,000 payoff,” and note there is “no sound legal basis” for a windfall dismissal because of an omission from jury instructions, which was one of the contentions of Snyder’s attorneys.
Snyder, a Republican, was first elected mayor in 2011 and reelected in 2015, a term cut short by his federal conviction in February 2019.
Snyder received a sentence of 21 months in prison for the bribery and IRS convictions and a year on supervised release from U.S. District Court Judge Matthew F. Kennelly of the Northern District of Illinois.
Still, Snyder successfully argued that the start of his sentence should be postponed until his bid to have the Supreme Court hear his case was complete.
akukulka@post-trib.com
