Former Portage Mayor James Snyder asked for a new trial on his conviction for defrauding the IRS in federal court filings late last month. Federal prosecutors, in their response, said his request is untimely and without merit. So goes the latest chapter in a saga that began nine years ago when Snyder was indicted on one count of defrauding the IRS and two counts of bribery, one involving towing contracts and the other involving garbage trucks. A jury in U. S. District Court in Hammond found Snyder not guilty on the charge involving the towing contract, and convicted him twice on the garbage truck charge, a case that made its way to the U. S. Supreme Court, which deemed in June of last year that the $13,000 payment Snyder received over a garbage truck contract was a gratuity, not a bribe, because the payment came after the contract and not before. The case was remanded to the lower courts. A jury convicted Snyder on the IRS charge, which involved his personal business and not his duties as mayor at the time, and that conviction has remained unchallenged. Snyder was scheduled to go to trial for a third time on the charge involving the garbage truck contract, but prosecutors have said they would like to sentence Snyder for obstructing the IRS and forgo a third trial on his bribery charge. Snyder, awaiting sentencing on the IRS conviction, which has been repeatedly pushed back, argued in an Oct. 31 filing that he wanted a new trial on the IRS charge because the information presented on the bribery charges could have improperly swayed the jury. The U. S. Attorney’s Office argues that Snyder’s request “is both untimely and meritless.” “Now, after the parties agreed to proceed to sentencing on the tax count and have begun their sentencing advocacy before this Court, defendant seeks leave for additional motion practice to challenge his 2019 conviction,” prosecutors said in their Friday filing. “Defendant wants this Court to grant the extraordinary remedy of overturning a jury’s verdict and setting the case for multiple new trials.” Snyder, prosecutors said in their filing, “failed to raise the issue of misjoinder or severance (of the charges) before trial in 2019.” Snyder, prosecutors said in their filing, made a “strategic decision” to go to trial on all of the counts rather than arguing at the time for the counts to be separated for trial. “Defendant thus waived any claim to improper joinder by failing to make this argument before trial,” documents state. 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. 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. Snyder’s response to the prosecutor’s filing is due by Friday, according to the online court docket. His sentencing on the IRS conviction was scheduled for Jan. 14.
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/11/18/prosecutors-james-snyders-request-for-new-trial-untimely-and-without-merit/
