Rowland judge not known for leniency in political corruption cases

“Connecticut has had way too much publicity about corruption of its public officials.” 

So said U.S. District Judge Janet Bond Arterton when she sentenced two first-time offenders last year to two- and three-year prison terms for soliciting and hiding illegal campaign contributions.

The campaign manager and finance chairman of House Speaker Chris Donovan’s failed campaign for Congress had taken $27,500 from owners of a roll-your-own tobacco business in exchange for assurances a bill to increase taxes on their product wouldn’t come before the legislature. The campaign manager, John Sassi, had pleaded guilty and testified for the prosecution before he got 28 months. The finance chairman, Robert Braddock, maintained his innocence and got 38 months after a jury convicted him.

It wasn’t the first time Judge Arterton had thrown the book at a corrupt politician. In 2003, she sentenced Bridgeport Mayor Joseph Ganim, also a first-time offender, to nine years for taking hundreds of thousands of dollars in gifts, cash and home improvement from businesses seeking city contracts.

Now it’s John Rowland’s turn.

Ganim’s stiff sentence was compared with the benign year and a day in federal prison given to the former governor later by the late U.S. District Judge Peter Dorsey, who was convinced Rowland had learned his lesson and wouldn’t sin again. 

Prosecutor Nora Dannehy had sought 30 to 37 months, citing the arrogance and greed of “a man who held the highest office in the state.”

Judge Arterton no doubt had Ganim and Rowland in mind when she remarked on Connecticut’s unwelcome notoriety because of its “corrupt public officials” in sentencing the small time pols running Donovan’s campaign to two and three times the stretch given Rowland by the kindly Judge Dorsey.

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And so, on Jan. 7, we will have two Connecticut governors participating in vastly different official ceremonies. In Hartford, Dannel Malloy will be inaugurated for the second time and in New Haven, former three-term governor John Rowland will be sent to prison, also for the second time. Connecticut Chief Justice Chase T. Rogers will be presiding at the Malloy ceremony and federal Judge Janet Bond Arterton will pronounce Rowland’s sentence.

In the past two weeks, lawyers for Rowland and the prosecution have offered the judge their dramatically contrasting sentence recommendations. 

The prosecutors want Rowland sentenced to 46 months in federal prison, saying his prior conviction and incarceration had failed to deter him from committing another crime. His defense team, headed by well known Washington defense attorney Reid Weingarten, has recommended a sentence of less than 18 months, citing, as evidence for leniency, letters from supporters and what Weingarten describes as Rowland’s “exemplary character.”

Weingarten is probably the best lawyer money can buy, having a client list that includes Lloyd Blankfein, the CEO of Goldman Sachs, Bernie Ebbers, serving 25 years for an $11 billion fraud as CEO of the defunct communications giant WorldCom, and Roman Polanski, the film director who fled the country years ago to avoid charges of having sex with a 13-year-old girl. The New York Times reports that Weingarten’s best friend is Attorney General Eric Holder, his colleague as a member of the Justice Department’s public integrity unit in an earlier life.

It is possible, no, make that likely, that this well-connected attorney is charging Rowland a bit more than the $30,000 he pocketed in his corrupt scheme. Rowland was convicted of having gotten the $30,000 to consult with congressional candidate Lisa Wilson-Foley on political matters while disguising his consultations as advice on matters of health care. It was Rowland’s second attempt at this fraud, having proposed it first to congressional candidate Mark Greenberg, who turned him down.

But Rowland’s defense team argues it’s unfair that Rowland’s co-conspirators, Wilson-Foley and her husband, nursing home chain owner Brian Foley, will get lighter sentences than Rowland. But the pair copped a plea, which Rowland could have done in exchange for just 18 more months in jail, but he refused. And Foley also testified for the prosecution. 

The defense also contends Rowland does not pose a risk of recidivism. He is 57 years old and “has no intention or ability to return to politics,” his lawyers wrote.

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Fifty-seven was Richard Nixon’s age during his first term as president. It was also eight years after the embittered, defeated candidate for governor of California told the press they “won’t have Dick Nixon to kick around anymore” during what he called his last press conference. In politics, you never know.

Simsbury resident Dick Ahles is a retired journalist. Email him at dahles@hotmail.com.