Brian Foley, the wealthy businessman who tried to buy his wife a Congressional seat in 2012 by surreptitiously steering money to former Gov. John G. Rowland for advice, has asked a federal judge who is sentencing him in New Haven on Friday not to throw the book at him — partly because he wrote a 1994 children’s tale called The Adventures of Mustard.
The creative appeal for leniency in a case that has been all about political corruption was tucked inside a lengthy sentencing memo his lawyers filed in advance of Friday’s hearing before Judge Janet Bond Arterton in U.S. District Court on Church Street.
Foley and his wife, Lisa Wilson-Foley, pleaded guilty last March to conspiring with others to mislead voters and regulators about ex-Gov. John Rowland’s true role in Wilson-Foley’s 2012 campaign for Congress, lest his involvement in her camp turn off voters. Foley helped the feds in their successful prosecution of Rowland.
Though the charge was just a misdemeanor, they each face as much as a year in prison at sentencing.
In light of Foley’s cooperation deal with prosecutors, his lawyers are pressing for a “probationary” sentence. Prosecutors have not gone that far, but they are on file as supporting a downward departure from the 12 months in prison that might ordinarily be warranted.
Foley’s sentencing memo offers numerous reasons that Arterton may want to give Foley a break. The reasons range from philanthropic contrubutions, much of which went to his children’s schools; to the valuable assistance he provided federal prosecutors by testifying against former Gov. Rowland at a trial in September, which ended in conviction.
Another stated reason: Foley is “creative.” He wrote a kids’ book.
Click here to read the full memo.
“Exhibit C” of the memo includes a copy of Foley’s book’s illustrated cover shows a boy riding a bicycle. It also includes the title page and synopsis, which describe the story as “a whimsical tale that youngsters are bound to relish,” about a town that mysteriously turns yellow.
The memo notes that the project was inspired by bedtime stories Foley, now 63, told his children. It was published by Vantage Press, a now-defunct vanity press.
The sentencing memo — or at least the part that is not redacted from public view — is largely mum on the significance of the book to Foley’s bid for leniency, beyond a solitary mention he merits on page 20 for being “creative.”
The sentencing memo also divulges that Foley, the owner of 26 nursing homes that house 2,000 patients in Connecticut and Rhode Island, first met Lisa Wilson-Foley, who would eventually became his second wife, while lecturing on public health at Yale. She was his student at the time.
“Mr. Foley knew from the start that Lisa was someone special,’’ the memo relates. It also blames Foley’s devotion to his wife for his recent transgressions: “The only reason why he committed the offense in this case was because of his blinding love for his wife and desire to support her ambitions at all costs.”
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I appreciate how everyone in CT is calling for blood. The headlines all scream for blood. The headlines all reek of a moral panic: "we have to make an example." We need "accountability." I think this newspaper and many others are not being honest with their readers. Criminal sentencing is not about vengeance or revenge so newspapers can gloat. Its about punishment, deterring the offender, deterring others, and rehabilitation. If the past two decades in CT has taught us anything, long or short criminal sentences do not deter politicians who-either due to their arrogance or self-righteousness-just dont get it. I also doubt that future politicians follow what others get as jail sentences in an overly technical case such as this. Admit it, this was a technical case: this was not getting bribes in office or anything else. This was a technical case, bottom line. In terms of deterring the offenders here, they have absolutely no chance of ever being involved in politics again. But I wonder if when weighing punishment, society should temper its retributive lust with some mercy if for no other reason than simply the cost of extracting such revenge? It costs $150 per day to imprison someone in the federal system. That means it will cost north of $50,000 per year. The fine range for Brian foley is only $3,000 to $30,000 so the Government will have to cover most of the costs of his incarceration without any proven benefit. With former Governor Rowland, if he gets the 5 years some are predicting, it will cost $200,000 without any proven benefit to society. Once upon a time, in the 1970s and 1980s, a conviction was thought to be enough. Today, the news papers and public dont rest until we not only get a conviction but also a pound of flesh. Then we wonder why people re-offend. And then we all wonder why our budget deficits are soaring through the roof. Foley and his conspirators may be telling the judge a bedtime a story, but the papers like this are doing worse.