BREAKING: Rowland avoids prison — for now

Former Gov. John G. Rowland, sentenced in March to 30 months in prison, could avoid prison indefinitely while a planned appeal of his campaign fraud conviction languishes in the federal courts.

Former Gov. John G. Rowland, sentenced in March to 30 months in prison, could avoid prison indefinitely while a planned appeal of his campaign fraud conviction languishes in the federal courts.

Former Gov. John Rowland will not have to report to prison next month.

A federal judge on Thursday granted the disgraced Republican bond while Rowland appeals his 30-month sentence for campaign fraud, which would be Rowland’s second prison stint since resigning as governor in 2004 for accepting bribes from state contractors.

Judge Janet Bond Arterton, who presided over Rowland’s 2014 trial in U.S. District Court in New Haven, wrote in a three-page motion that some of the legal arguments raised by the defense are “fairly debatable.”

Having a reputation as a tough judge who has handed out stiff sentences for public corruption, Arteron wrote that Rowland was not obligated to show that his conviction will be overturned during his appeal for the 57-year-old to remain free.

A spokesman for the Justice Department, which zeroed in on Rowland for his role as a shadow political operative during the failed 2012 congressional campaign of Republican Lisa Wilson-Foley, declined to comment.

The youngest governor in Connecticut history who was elected to three terms, Rowland was found guilty last September of campaign fraud, conspiracy and obstruction of justice.

Through a nursing home business owned by Wilson-Foley’s husband, Brian Foley, the couple funneled $35,000 in payments to Rowland. They did not want to be tainted by having Rowland on the campaign payroll, but admitted that he still had influence in the 5th Congressional District and Rowland’s home city of Waterbury. The district stretches from Danbury to the Farmington Valley and includes Litchfield County, Meriden and New Britain.

Prosecutors say Rowland pitched a similar sham to GOP congressional candidate Mark Greenberg in 2010, but was rebuffed by the Litchfield businessman.

The defense claims that Foley concocted the entire sham contract for the ex-governor to work at Apple Rehab, with Rowland having no knowledge of the scheme.

Foley was sentenced to three years of probation and three months in a halfway house, while his wife was sentenced to five months in federal prison.

Rowland was scheduled to surrender on June 16 and report to federal prison in Otisville, N.Y. Arterton previously granted Rowland’s request to delay his surrender so he could attend his stepson’s wedding this spring.

The basis of Rowland’s appeal is expected to be that prosecutors suppressed key evidence on the contract between Rowland and Foley, which was reviewed by a lawyer.

Neil Vigdor