Rowland’s co-chief of staff was sentenced to 30 months in federal prison in 2006 for accepting cash, gifts and gold coins from a contractor in exchange for rigging state bids
A former Rowland deputy chief of staff pleaded guilty to the same scheme; the New York Times reported his corruption included cash for a new car, limousine rides, hotel stays and use of a 65-foot yacht
The Rell administration’s DMV was struck by a license fraud scandal in which state police arrested multiple employees for selling fraudulent Connecticut driver’s licenses for cash
John Rowland resigned on July 1, 2004. The criminal prosecutions he left behind took years to resolve, landing entirely on the next governor’s watch.
Republican Lt. Gov. Jodi Rell inherited the governorship and the aftermath.
Peter N. Ellef, Rowland’s co-chief of staff, was sentenced to 30 months in federal prison after pleading guilty to rigging state contracts in favor of contractor William Tomasso, who had paid him off with cash and other bribes over the course of years, according to the New Haven Independent.
Lawrence Alibozek, a former deputy chief of staff to Rowland, had already pleaded guilty to his role in the same scheme. The New York Times reported that the bribes started in 1997 with $9,500 in cash so he could buy a car and grew from there into years of luxury travel, yacht trips and hotel stays at the contractor’s expense. He was sentenced to home confinement, probation and community service, and ordered to repay the state.
The Rell administration had its own chapter. Beginning in 2005, state police arrested multiple Connecticut DMV employees for bribery and fraud in connection with a scheme to sell fraudulent driver’s licenses for cash, according to state police.
When Rell left office in January 2011 and Democratic Gov. Dannel P. Malloy took over, the new administration moved to protect state records. Rell-era email backups were set to be automatically deleted within 60 days under standard state IT policy. Malloy signed an executive order to preserve them before the window closed, CT News Junkie reported.
Rowland went to prison. His aides were still being sentenced two years after he left. The criminal cases that began inside the Rowland administration ran well into someone else’s term.
By Kevin Coughlin
