Former Portage Mayor James Snyder successfully pushes back federal prison report date
Anyone expecting disgraced former Portage Mayor James Snyder to report to federal prison on Oct. 16 to begin serving a 21-month sentence in his cases for defrauding the IRS and public corruption can scratch that date off the calendar.
On Wednesday, U.S. District Court Judge Matthew Kennelly agreed to Snyder’s request to postpone surrender to the federal Bureau of Prisons until 60 days after the denial of his pending request to have his case heard by the U.S. Supreme Court, according to an online docket. The decision came the same day Snyder’s attorney, Andréa Gambino, filed the request in a six-page document that outlines the possible time frame for him to surrender, depending on how things play out with the Supreme Court.
In her filing, Gambino points out that the government sought a 30-day extension to respond to Snyder’s request before the nation’s highest court, moving that deadline to Oct. 5, and the government is now seeking another extension, pushing the deadline to Nov. 6.
The filing notes that, given its current timetable, the Supreme Court would consider whether to hear Snyder’s case on Dec. 8, with a decision that afternoon or the following Monday, Dec. 11.
“If the Supreme Court grants Mr. Snyder’s petition, the case would likely be set for argument in February or March 2024, with a decision expected by June 2024,” according to the document.
The filing also requests that, if the Supreme Court agrees to hear his case, Snyder remain out on bond until the court hears the case and renders its decision.
Without a postponement of Snyder’s surrender date, “there is a substantial risk that Mr. Snyder would serve nearly half of the sentence that has been imposed, only to have to retry the case if he is successful on the merits, resulting in time in custody on an invalid conviction, in violation of Mr. Snyder’s liberty interest under the Due Process clause of the Fifth Amendment,” the filing states.
Snyder received a 21-month sentence in prison, and, according to the filing, would serve 17.8 months of that with time off for good behavior, not including a 6- to 12-month stint in a halfway house.
“Mr. Snyder has been on pre-trial release and then bond pending appeal since 2016 (7 years) without incident. There is no indication that delaying his surrender for the two to eight months it may take to receive a decision from the United States Supreme Court will cause him to flee or endanger any other person,” according to the filing.
Snyder filed a petition in early August asking the U.S. Supreme Court to consider overturning his conviction over taking $13,000 in regards to a contract for garbage trucks.
At the crux of the argument filed by his attorneys is whether that payment, which according to court documents was received after the garbage trucks were purchased in exchange for consulting services reportedly provided by Snyder to Great Lakes Peterbilt, the company that sold the garbage trucks, was a gratuity.
Snyder has exhausted his options in the federal appellate court system, with a July denial by the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago to give his case another hearing. His attorneys argue in their petition that the circuit courts don’t agree on what constitutes a gratuity, and the Supreme Court has the opportunity to clarify the matter by taking up Snyder’s case.
Federal prosecutors have said in court testimony and documents that there was no written agreement between Snyder and the Buha brothers, who owned Great Lakes Peterbilt, to provide consulting services for health care and information technology, nor was there evidence of any work done under the arrangement.
Snyder, 45, a Republican, was first elected mayor in 2011 and was reelected in 2015.
Snyder’s case has moved in fits and starts since he was first indicted in U.S. District Court in Hammond in November 2016 on a charge of corrupt solicitation involving a contract with Great Lakes Peterbilt for garbage trucks; interfering with the IRS, for hiding funds from the federal agency from his mortgage company; and receiving a bribe for a tow truck contract.
A federal jury found Snyder guilty on the charges involving the garbage truck contract and the IRS and acquitted him on the allegations involving the towing contract.
Snyder asked for and received a new trial on the count involving the garbage trucks, and that trial, in March 2021, also resulted in a jury conviction.
Snyder filed another appeal in October 2021 in an attempt to have both of his convictions overturned and the court granted him bond pending that appeal. The appeals court rejected Snyder’s bid to have his convictions dismissed in a June 15 ruling.
