Connecticut’s Ex-Governor Gets a Year in Prison

Former Connecticut Gov. John G. Rowland, once a hugely popular figure in his home state and a rising star in the Republican Party, was sentenced Friday to a year in prison after pleading guilty to a single federal corruption charge.

Appearing before U.S. District Judge Peter C. Dorsey in New Haven, Conn., Rowland, 47, said: “I am ashamed to be here today, and I accept full responsibility for my actions.”

Rowland, who throughout a lengthy corruption investigation had said confidently that he would remain unscathed, sounded remorseful Friday. As a three-term governor, he said, he had developed “a sense of entitlement and even arrogance.”

“I let my pride get in my way,” he said.

The judge ordered him to spend one year and one day in prison, plus four months in home confinement and three years on supervised release. Rowland must report to federal prison in Fort Devens, Mass., on April 1.

Rowland, whose family has lived in Connecticut for more than 200 years, was first elected to the state Legislature at age 23. Four years later, Connecticut voters sent him to the House of Representatives in Washington. He was 37 when he became governor and befriended the then-governor of Texas, George W. Bush.

But in Hartford, Rowland’s administration was rife with rumors of corruption -- many of them substantiated by a federal inquiry that showed a pattern of graft and favoritism in the awarding of state contracts.

In December, he pleaded guilty to one count of “conspiracy to steal honest service.”

The governor’s undoing stemmed from repairs to his lakefront vacation home. Rowland first said he had paid for renovations that included a cathedral ceiling, a hot tub and kitchen cabinets that he said had come from the Home Depot.

Later, he conceded that the cabinets had been custom built, as he tearfully admitted that the work at the vacation home had been provided as a gift from a construction firm that had won several important state contracts.

Rowland also confessed to accepting more than $100,000 in free vacations in Vermont and Las Vegas from the contracting firm.

“It was in the best interest of those who profited from Rowland’s activities to ensure that the former governor remain in power,” said Andy Sauer, executive director of Connecticut Common Cause, which advocates for campaign reform.

Sauer said that those who sought favor with Rowland had made legal political contributions even larger than the illegal gifts.

Rowland resigned as governor July 1, as state legislators prepared to impeach him.

His lieutenant governor, M. Jodi Rell, succeeded him.

On Friday, Rell said: “The John Rowland that stood in the courtroom today is not the John Rowland that I thought I knew. He’s not the man the people of Connecticut thought they knew when they elected him governor three times. There is a pervasive sense of sadness about this almost surreal day.”