<p>HAMMOND, Ind. — A federal jury convicted a former northwestern Indiana mayor on a bribery charge Friday in his retrial on allegations he solicited and accepted a $13,000 bribe from a trucking company.</p>
<p>A jury in U.S. District Court in Hammond deliberated less than two hours before former finding Portage mayor James Snyder, 42, guilty on a federal bribery charge. He is set to be sentenced July 1.</p>
<p>Another jury had convicted Snyder in February 2019 of taking the $13,000 in exchange for contracts to sell five garbage trucks to the city of Portage using a shell company to hide income assets from the IRS while Snyder owed back personal and business taxes.</p>
<p>But a judge granted Snyder a new trial on the soliciting bribes charge in November 2019. After numerous delays <a href="https://apnews.com/article/business-trials-coronavirus-pandemic-indiana-43d1e659b83ed4845ffd531b464293ee">his retrial began March 8</a>. </p>
<p>Trial testimony concluded Thursday with a former owner of Great Lakes Peterbilt telling jurors he felt pressured when, shortly before Christmas 2013, Snyder showed up at the trucking company’s office asking for money.</p>
<p>“He is the mayor and he has influence,” Robert Buha said.</p>
<p>In Friday’s closing arguments, Assistant U.S. Attorney Jill Koster said Snyder violated the public’s trust by steering the bids for the garbage truck contracts worth $1.25 million to Great Lakes Peterbilt and then asking its owners, brothers Robert and Stephen Buha, for money.</p>
<p>Snyder’s attorney, Jackie Bennett, said prosecutors didn’t present direct evidence that the $13,000 check signed by the brothers was a bribe.</p>
