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Saturday, March 19, 2005

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  Rowland arrived at the courthouse about a half-hour before the sentencing hearing was to begin on the arm of his wife, Patty. The chants referenced Rowland's involvement in a failed $220 million energy deal between the state and the bankrupt Enron Corp.

Rowland said nothing as he made his way through a crowd of media and into the courthouse.

Rowland, 47, pleaded guilty in December to a corruption charge, admitting that he accepted more than $100,000 in chartered trips to Las Vegas, Vermont vacations and repairs to his lakeside cottage.

His plea deal set a sentencing range of 15 months to 21 months in prison, but Rowland is asking for less. Prosecutors say Rowland deserves 30 to 37 months because after deceiving the state for years, he lied to a probation officer about his finances.

The corruption probe and a legislative impeachment investigation prompted the three-term Republican governor to resign in July, ending one of the most storied political careers in Connecticut history.

U.S. District Judge Peter C. Dorsey has discretion to sentence Rowland as he sees fit. Dorsey has a reputation as one of the state's most sympathetic judges and Rowland's attorney is trying to cast the three-term governor as a dedicated public servant who was betrayed by his subordinates.

He recruited dozens of people to write letters on Rowland's behalf, including state officials and Yale University President Richard Levin.

"I truly hope that people would remember John Rowland for the good he has done, rather than the mistake he committed," wrote state Rep. Selim Noujaim, a Republican from Rowland's hometown of Waterbury.

In a sentencing memo filed Thursday in U.S. District Court, Rowland's attorneys blamed his former co-chief of staff, Peter Ellef and contractor William Tomasso for much of the corruption. Both are under federal indictment.

Prosecutors, in their own sentencing report, argued Thursday that Rowland has a history of deceit and unethical behavior and that he only admitted and apologized for after it threatened his political career.

Rowland is expected to address Dorsey before he is sentenced on Friday.

Rowland soared through the political ranks, rising from legislator to congressman to Connecticut's youngest-ever governor at 37. He was an admirer of President Reagan and a friend to the Bush family. President Bush appointed Rowland to White House advisory committees and affectionately called him "Johnny."

But since the corruption scandal broke in 2003, Bush has kept his distance. Rowland resigned as chairman of Bush's re-election campaign in Connecticut, and when Bush came here to speak, Rowland stayed away.

Through it all, Rowland maintained that he never did anything wrong and predicted the corruption investigation would never touch him.

But with his former deputy chief of staff, Lawrence Alibozek, cooperating with prosecutors and Ellef under federal racketeering indictment, the pressure on Rowland became too much.

Rowland's plea deal avoided almost certain indictment.

If a judge sends him to prison, Rowland will become one of more than a dozen former governors to serve prison time and only the second in New England. The first was former Rhode Island Gov. Edward D. DiPrete, who was sentenced to a year in prison in 1998 for bribery, extortion and racketeering.

Despite the conviction, Rowland still has supporters who say his crimes were minor compared to his accomplishments. Rowland is crediting with increasing funding for Connecticut cities, improving higher education and spearheading a $1 billion redevelopment project in Hartford.

"A lot of people didn't have that kind of vision," said the Rev. Cornell Lewis, a Hartford community activist and a Rowland confidant. "He was a person who in my opinion showed his real concern."

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