New Haven Independent

At the close of a 59-minute session in U.S. District Court on Church Street, Judge Peter C. Dorsey sentenced Lawrence Alibozek (at center in above photo) to one year of home confinement, 300 hours of community service, and mental health evaluation and counseling. Alibozek also must pay the state back $100,000 for the cash, airline tickets and swanky hotel accommodations he received as bribes during his time as deputy chief of staff for former Gov. John G. Rowland.

The $100,000 doesn’t include the $10,000 in gold coins investigators unearthed from Alibozek’s back yard.

Alibozek, who’s 61, has 83 years to pay back the money at just $100 a month without interest, unless he starts earning more money. His state pension will help him pay back the money — leading Attorney General Dick Blumenthal, who showed up at the sentencing, to renew a call for a law to eliminate corrupt ex-officials’ pensions.

Dorsey’s sentence “couldn’t be better,” exulted Alibozek’s attorney, William Gerace, as he stood beside his client (at right in top photo) outside the courthouse after the proceedings.

Alibozek’s case was the last formal court chapter of a three-year legal saga involving bribes that former Rowland administration took in return for steering state contracts to the Tomasso family construction companies. Rowland resigned his office and served a 10-month prison sentence. His former chief of staff, Peter Ellef, is serving a 30-month sentence.

In letting off Alibozek even lighter than those defendants, Dorsey accepted four main arguments by Gerace.

One: Alibozek was a “soldier,” not a ringleader. He took orders from Ellef.

Two: He quit the game early, in 1999. “He didn’t like what he was doing. He was lured into it,” attorney Gerace told the judge. “He turned around and said, ‘enough is enough.’”

Three: He then provided invaluable help to government investigators in their cases against Rowland, Ellef, and the Tomassos.

Four: In return, Alibozek endured a figurative seven-year prison sentence of sorts — his career destroyed, he and his family harassed by thugs hired by other defendants (who “bumper locked” his car “on country roads”), his health a mess because of the embarrassment, pressure, and uncertainty over his fate.

Lead government prosecutor Nora Dannehy basically seconded Gerace’s arguments in favor of sparing Alibozek a jail sentence. This was a contrast to Peter Ellef’s sentencing, when Dannehy sought a longer sentence that Dorsey meted out.

Dannehy’s only main disagreement was over Gerace’s characterization of Alibozek’s repeated pocketing of bribes and steering of inside information to the Tomassos as “a lapse in judgment.”

“To call it that minimizes what was prosecuted in this case” and the “violat[ion] of the public trust,” Dannehy said.

A Second Chance

In explaining his decision from the bench, Dorsey said he wanted both to “send a message that this kind of conduct will not be tolerated” and to afford Alibozek “an opportunity to resurrect his life.”

During his one-year home confinement, Alibozek will be required to seek and maintain employment. He’ll be allowed to leave the house to do that. He may also leave to perform his three hours a week of community service for two years of community service, to go to medical appointments, and to attend religious services.

After the sentencing, Alibozek stood silently by Gerace as his attorney answered reporters’ questions. What might Alibozek do for a living now? they were asked.

“Mr. Rowland seems to have gotten some work,” Gerace responded. “Anyone can start over.”

Unfinished Business

Neither Gerace nor Alibozek would address a remaining mystery in the case. Some of the Tomasso bribe money was funneled to a landscaping company Alibozek created called TREA LLC. “T” stood for Tomasso. “E” stood for Ellef. “A” stood for Alibozek. Could “R” have stood for, say, a former governor?

Attorney General Blumenthal (pictured) didn’t answer that question, either. He did say that his staff is looking into the question, among many others, as it tries to collect more money from Rowland-era crooks than the $100,000 it’s now supposedly getting (at a deliberate pace) from Alibozek. The state had filed a civil suit to reclaim the money from Alibozek; the terms of his sentence remove the need for the state to pursue that suit.

The message of Monday’s sentencing, in Blumenthal’s view: “Corrupt officials will be made to pay.”

A second message, in Blumenthal’s view: The need to pass a law he has been proposing for three years. It would eliminate, following a due-process hearing, the pensions of any state officials convicted of crimes related to their official duties.

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