Waterbury Republican Mayor Joseph Santopietro was convicted in 1992 on 15 federal charges including bribery, fraud and theft of federal job training funds, and later convicted again in 2007 in a mob-related probe
Waterbury Republican Mayor Philip Giordano, who had run for U.S. Senate, was sentenced to 37 years in federal prison for sexually abusing two young girls while in office
Waterbury produced two Republican mayors who went to federal prison within a decade of each other
Waterbury gave Connecticut Republicans two of their most prominent mayors. Both ended up in federal prison.
Bribery. Fraud. Federal Prison.
Joseph Santopietro became Waterbury’s mayor in 1985 at 26, the youngest person to hold the office. Federal prosecutors later said he wasted little time before taking advantage of it, collecting more than $170,000 in developer bribes over three years, according to the New York Times.
A jury convicted Santopietro on 15 counts in 1992. The charges included bribery and fraud, and prosecutors showed that money set aside for job training and homeless services had been diverted to pay for personal trips to Atlantic City and the Virgin Islands, according to WTNH. He received a nine-year federal prison sentence.
Eight years after leaving prison, Santopietro faced federal charges again. He was among 29 people charged alongside a reputed mob boss and a trash-hauling company owner in a federal investigation into organized crime’s grip on the industry in Connecticut and New York, according to NBC News. Santopietro, who had been working as a consultant for one of the hauling companies, pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy. A federal judge sentenced him to five years’ probation.
Child Sexual Abuse. Federal Prison.
Philip Giordano served three terms as Waterbury’s Republican mayor from 1996 to 2001. He also ran as the Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in 2000, losing to Joe Lieberman. The following year he was arrested, and in 2003 a federal jury convicted him of sexually abusing two young girls while he held office. He received a 37-year federal prison sentence. Years later, he pleaded no contest to state charges arising from the same conduct and received an 18-year state prison sentence to run concurrently with his federal term, NBC News reported.
Two Republican mayors. Two federal prisons. One city.
