Rowland makes last ditch appeal for new trial

Former Gov. John G. Rowland leaves the Federal Courthouse after his trial in New Haven, Conn., on Friday Sept. 19, 2014. Rowland was found guilty on all seven federal counts of violating campaign laws.

Former Gov. John G. Rowland leaves the Federal Courthouse after his trial in New Haven, Conn., on Friday Sept. 19, 2014. Rowland was found guilty on all seven federal counts of violating campaign laws.

Running out of time and legal options ahead of his sentencing next week for campaign fraud, former Gov. John G. Rowland is making a last-ditch effort to have his conviction overturned.

In a 26-page filing late Wednesday with the U.S. District Court in New Haven, lawyers for the previously incarcerated governor petitioned Judge Janet Bond Arterton for a new trial for Rowland, renewing allegations that prosecutors withheld evidence.

“Mr. Rowland suffered prejudice as a result of the government’s disclosure failures,” Rowland’s lawyers wrote.

Rowland, 53, who resigned as governor a decade ago and served 10 months in prison for accepting bribes, is scheduled to be sentenced March 18 for working as an off-the-books political consultant to Republican Lisa Wilson-Foley during her failed 2012 bid for Congress.

Wilson-Foley pleaded guilty to funneling $35,000 in payments to Rowland through Apple Rehab, a chain of nursing homes owned by her husband, Brian Foley.

Rowland could face more than three years in prison as a two-time offender if Arterton follows the sentencing recommendation of prosecutors.

His team of high-priced lawyers is clinging to it claim the Justice Department suppressed critical evidence that they say proves Rowland had no knowledge that the arrangement was illegal.

Prosecutors have rejected claims that they violated Rowland’s due process rights, saying that outcome of Rowland’s trial last September would not have been different.

The request for a new trial comes a week after Arterton denied a misconduct complaint filed by Rowland’s lawyers, who have thus far been able to delay Rowland’s sentencing for two months. The unsuccessful grievance relied on a similar argument — that a law firm retained by Foley’s husband (Patton Boggs) signed off on the contract between Rowland and the nursing home company.

The defense maintains that Rowland, who was elected to three terms and stepped down in 2005, believed that he was a bona fide volunteer for Wilson-Foley’s campaign at the same time he was doing legitimate consulting for the nursing home.

Not wanting to be tainted by putting Rowland on the campaign payroll, the couple concocted a sham contract with the former governor, who was still an influential figure in his native Waterbury and other parts of the 5th District, where Wilson-Foley failed to get the GOP nomination for Congress. The 5th District stretches from Danbury to the Farmington Valley and includes Litchfield County, Meriden and New Britain.

“He is a valuable commodity in the political world, particularly in the Republican world,” Rowland’s lawyer, Reid Weingarten, said in his opening statements of the trial. “And (Foley) also wanted to get some work out of him for Apple.”

Prosecutors are seeking a 10-month sentence for Wilson-Foley, but her lawyers want probation. A sentencing date for Wilson-Foley hasn’t been set.

Her husband received three years of probation, with the first three months to be spent in a halfway house, and a $30,000 fine for his role in the scheme.

Neil Vigdor