NEW HAVEN -- Former Governor John Rowland was sentenced to 30 months in prison in New Haven Federal Court Wednesday afternoon.
Rowland was sentenced to prison on four felony counts and three years supervised release upon completion of prison term. In addition, he will be fined $35,000.
Rowland will be permitted to voluntarily surrender, if his appeal is denied. He is scheduled to report by noon on June 16. However, his team is filing an appeal immediately.
During his last sentencing, exactly ten years ago today, former Rowland said, “I am ashamed to be here today, and I accept full responsibility for my actions." Today, a judge said Rowland’s “prior incarceration did not bring about the result that was hoped for.”
Rowland requested to be placed in Otisville Federal Correctional Institute in Otisville New York, about 130 miles from Hartford. The judge recommended Rowland serve his time there.
The former governor was convicted of seven crimes, four of them felonies, last year.
Attorney James Bergenn, who was not involved in the case, was a surprise character witness for Rowland today. Bergenn told the judge he is a staunch Democrat who never voted for Rowland, but he felt compelled to speak because how Rowland has helped many of his clients who had been incarcerated, and “He never asked for a dime.”
“Every client, who spoke with him, was moved and changed,” said Bergenn, of Shipman & Goodwin. “His humility, when nobody was looking, was very meaningful.”
Humility is not what the jury saw, though.
Judge Janet Atherton said during the sentencing, "The offenses here are not trivial, civil or careless."
In September, Rowland was found guilty of conspiring to hide consulting work he did for Lisa Wilson-Foley's 2012 congressional campaign.
According to prosecutors, Rowland was paid $35,000 through a fake consulting contract with Apple Rehab, a chain of nursing homes owned by Brian Foley.
Lisa Wilson-Foley and Brian Foley both plead guilty. Wilson-Foley has not yet been sentenced. Foley reached a deal with federal prosecutors and became the star witness against Rowland.
Since September, the defense has tried to overturn Rowland’s conviction and win him a new trial. They argued that prosecutors withheld evidence that could have helped to prove Rowland’s innocence. The defense also claimed that the prosecution refused to reach a deal with Wilson-Foley because she would not endorse their version of what happened.
On Monday, a judge denied a request for a new trial, adding that, even if evidence was withheld, it would not be enough to change the jurors’ minds.
This was the second time in three weeks that the defense unsuccessfully attempted to overturn the conviction.
Rowland's lawyers are expected to appeal, and argue that Rowland's “exemplary character" should result in a lesser sentence.
“All of this hullabaloo, I believe, is for one reason only and that is the involvement John Rowland,” said Rowland’s attorney, Reid Weingarten, who contends, in all his years of legal practice, he has never seen a case with similar facts carried to such a harsh conclusion. It’s his opinion the prosecution felt Rowland’s previous 10 month sentence was insufficient, so they were out for blood.
Prosecutors, however, want the former governor sentenced to nearly four years in prison. They argue this would fully address Rowland's “troubling personal history.”
Assistant U.S. Attorney Liam Brennan believed Rowland should have received a longer sentence because: “The natural end of this conspiracy was to elect, to the house of representatives, a corrupt public official.” Brennan was referring to Lisa Wilson-Foley, who will be sentenced next Tuesday, March 24. Her husband, Brian Foley, who owns a chain of nursing homes Rowland claims he did legitimate work for, was sentenced in January to three months in a halfway house.
Rowland's Wednesday sentencing marks ten years to the day since he was sentenced in a different case for taking illegal gifts while in office.