Rowland’s appeal denied, ex-governor faces prison

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Former Gov. John G. Rowland’s bid to overturn a 30-month prison sentence for campaign fraud — a second stint for the once-rising Republican star — has been denied by an appeals court.

In a decision released Friday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit in New York City rejected Rowland’s claims that the Justice Department was trying to make an example of him when it prosecuted him for working as a shadow campaign operative for 2012 congressional candidate Lisa Wilson-Foley.

The court, which heard oral arguments in Rowland’s appeal in March, ruled that the disgraced politician also schemed to work as a paid employee for a animal shelter run by Mark Greenberg during the Litchfield businessman’s 2010 run for Congress.

“We conclude the Rowland was properly convicted ... because he created or participated in the creation of documents that misrepresented — or ‘falsified’ — his relationships with the Congressional candidates, Wilson-Foley and Mark Greenberg, and he did so with intent to impede a possible future federal investigation,” the three judges presiding over the case wrote.

Running out of options

Rowland’s lawyer, Andrew Fish, a former federal prosecutor who specializes in white-collar criminal cases, did not respond to a request for comment.

It’s unclear whether Rowland, who resigned as governor in 2004 and was incarcerated for 10 months for accepting bribes from state contractors, will appeal the decision. The 58-year-old Middlebury resident has been free on appeal bond since he was sentenced to prison in March of 2015. A jury convicted Rowland of campaign fraud, conspiracy and obstruction of justice in September of 2014.

Legal experts say that Rowland is close to exhausting his options.

“I think any lawyer who’s not milking it is going to tell him, ‘We can keep you out of jail for a little while, but it’s going to cost you a lot of money and your chances are pretty low,’ ” said Todd Fernow, the longtime director of the Criminal Clinic at the University of Connecticut Law School.

Fernow said the most logical move for Rowland would be to file what is known as a petition for re-hearing en banc, which is a request to have the full appeals court take up the case. It’s customary for a three-judge panel to hear cases, as one did with Rowland.

Rowland’s legal team could also seek a 90-day stay from the appeals court while it files what is known as a petition for writ of certiorari with the U.S. Supreme Court to take up the case. With a vacancy in the high court because of the death of Justice Antonin Scalia and a full docket, legal scholars say, that’s a longshot. The high court traditionally prioritizes landmark cases interpreting the law.4

“Nowadays, the Supreme Court just takes up so little,” said James Bergenn, a Hartford lawyer who volunteered to speak on Rowland’s behalf at last year’s sentencing.

‘This was always a risk’

Bergenn said prosecutors did a masterful job keying on the public’s disillusionment with the role of money in politics. Rowland, he said, knew it would be difficult getting the court to overturn his conviction.

“From his point of view, it’s time to, unfortunately, adjust to this reality that it’s not going to be changed,” Bergenn said. “He knows that this was always a risk.”

It could be several more months until Rowland’s next court appearance, which is when he would be given a date to report to a medium security federal prison in Otisville, N.Y. Rowland must serve a minimum of 85 percent of his sentence, 25.5 months, under federal guidelines.

“They won’t just whisk him off the street,” Fernow said.

A Justice Department spokesman was not prepared to comment on the ruling.

At the heart of the case is whether Rowland conspired with Wilson-Foley to hide his work on her 5th District campaign from the Federal Election Commission by receiving $35,000 in payments from a nursing home business owned by the candidate’s husband, Brian Foley. The couple cut a deal with the Justice Department in return for reduced sentences, five months for Wilson-Foley and three months at a halfway house for her husband.

Rowland’s lawyers contend that Rowland did legitimate work for the nursing home and it was his prerogative to volunteer for Wilson-Foley’s campaign. They also argued that prosecutors withheld evidence that a law firm signed off on the contract between Rowland and the nursing home.

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