A Grundy County man who submitted a fake obituary to a newspaper so he could get time off from work now faces time in jail. Thirty-six-year-old James Snyder of Stout was sentenced in Black Hawk County District Court to one year in jail with all but seven days suspended. Snyder has pleaded guilty to a charge of tampering with records.
Snyder submitted the obituary of his girlfriend’s 17-year-old son to the Waterloo Courier in December so he could get funeral leave from his workplace. A few days after the obituary was printed, the boy was spotted at a Waterloo restaurant. Witnesses called the police and the newspaper. Snyder and his girlfriend, Mary Jo Jensen, who both worked at the Tyson Foods plant, had both taken leave.
Jensen submitted an Alford plea in June on a charge of being an accessory after the fact, and was given a suspended sentence and fined 50 dollars.