Former Lake Station mayor begins serving federal sentence

HAMMOND, Ind. (AP) - Former Lake Station mayor Keith Soderquist has begun serving a four-year federal prison term for public corruption.

The (Northwest Indiana) Times reports (http://bit.ly/2drqhFm ) that, as of Friday, the U.S. Bureau of Prisons website showed the 47-year-old Soderquist was in custody at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Chicago.

Soderquist and his 58-year-old wife, Deborah, were found guilty of using campaign money and city food pantry funds to gamble. His wife is scheduled to surrender Oct. 31 to begin a two-year sentence.

Keith Soderquist had asked a U.S. district court judge to postpone his sentence to allow him time to have surgery this past week, but that surgery date was canceled.

Soderquist served nearly eight years in office in the northwest Indiana city.

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Information from: The Times, http://www.nwitimes.com