Court filing: Former Portage Mayor James Snyder can be tried on bribery charge

Former Portage Mayor James Snyder could find himself having another go in court on a bribery charge involving the purchase of garbage trucks if the government so chooses, according to a Wednesday filing by the Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.

The appellate court had its say after the case was remanded from the U.S. Supreme Court, which in June overturned Snyder’s conviction 6-3 for accepting $13,000 from the Buha brothers, owners of Great Lakes Peterbilt, for alleged consulting work, and deemed the payment a gratuity.

Snyder’s attorneys, in their filings, rejected the government’s argument that he could have been convicted of either bribery or soliciting a gratuity and said there’s no legal basis for a retrial without a re-indictment. Federal prosecutors argued a new trial was the next step since a jury had already convicted him, and the appellate court agreed.

If the government pursues another trial, it would be Snyder’s third on the charge involving the garbage trucks.

The Supreme Court, according to Wednesday’s filing, agreed with Snyder that the bribery statute commonly known as 666, which is its number in the federal criminal code, applies only to quid pro quo agreements and does not include “gratuities,” meaning rewards given to elected officials after the fact.

In a new trial, according to the court filing, the government would be limited to a bribery theory “that Snyder corruptly solicited or demanded or accepted or agreed, in advance of the transactions, to accept anything of value in connection with the transactions.”

The filing also notes irregularities in the bidding process, the timing of the $13,000 payment and the “lack of corroborating evidence for Snyder’s claim that he was paid for consulting.”

“We continue to think the evidence would support a finding of bribery here, beyond a reasonable doubt,” the justices wrote. “The timing and size of the payment — and the problems with the attempts by Snyder and the Buhas to explain it — all support reasonable inferences that Snyder was conscious of wrongdoing and had a corrupt state of mind, as well as that he had reached an understanding ahead of time leading to such a large payment.”

The court notes that “Because the evidence was sufficient to convict on a bribery theory, the Double Jeopardy Clause does not bar a new trial on the bribery charge. A new trial is permissible if the government chooses to pursue it.”

U.S. District Court Judge Matthew Kennelly of the Northern District of Illinois can conduct a new trial “if he is willing to continue to serve on this case,” according to the filing.

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 for obstructing the IRS, a jury found Snyder not guilty on a bribery count involving a towing contract and guilty on the other two counts.

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 a majority of the Supreme Court determined 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. Madigan’s trial is now underway.

The Supreme Court decision, released on June 26, 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 consulting work, after the business got the garbage truck contracts and not before.

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 Kennelly. 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.

alavalley@chicagotribune.com