Committee v. Ganim
Decision Date | 15 April 2014 |
Docket Number | SC 19192 |
Court | Connecticut Supreme Court |
Parties | STATEWIDE GRIEVANCE COMMITTEE v. JOSEPH P. GANIM |
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The syllabus and procedural history accompanying the opinion as it appears on the Commission on Official Legal Publications Electronic Bulletin Board Service and in the Connecticut Law Journal and bound volumes of official reports are copyrighted by the Secretary of the State, State of Connecticut, and may not be reproduced and distributed without the express written permission of the Commission on Official Legal Publications, Judicial Branch, State of Connecticut.Rogers, C. J., and Palmer, Zarella, Eveleigh, McDonald, Espinosa and
Vertefeuille, Js.
Harold R. Rosnick, with whom, on the brief, were Bruce L. Levin and Barbara M. Schellenberg, for the appellant (defendant).
Patricia A. King, chief disciplinary counsel, with whom was Suzanne B. Sutton, first assistant chief disciplinary counsel, for the appellee (plaintiff).
This case addresses the limits of the deference that should be afforded to a local standing committee of the state bar when that committee recommends that an individual, who recently has been released from prison after serving a lengthy term for multiple federal felonies that he committed while holding public office, should be reinstated to the bar and, therefore, entrusted again with the privilege of practicing law. The defendant, Joseph P. Ganim, was suspended from the practice of law upon presentment by the plaintiff, the Statewide Grievance Committee, as a result of his conviction of sixteen federal felony offenses stemming from actions he took while he was the mayor of Bridgeport, the state's largest city.1 Soon after his release from prison, he applied for reinstatement to the bar. Although a local standing committee that investigated the defendant's application recommended that he be reinstated, the trial court rejected that recommendation and denied the defendant's application. The defendant appeals2 from the trial court's judgment, claiming that the court improperly failed to defer to the standing committee's recommendation that he be reinstated and, relatedly, that the court misinterpreted that committee's report, committed legal improprieties when reviewing the report, and wrongfully determined that some of the standing committee's findings were clearly erroneous. We disagree with these claims and, accordingly, affirm the judgment of the trial court.
The following facts and procedural history are relevant to the appeal. The defendant was admitted to the Connecticut bar in 1984. He served as mayor of the city of Bridgeport (city) from 1991 until 2003, when he was convicted, after a jury trial, of the federal offenses of racketeering in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1962 (c), racketeering conspiracy in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1962 (d), extortion in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1951, honest services mail fraud in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 1341 and 1346, bribery involving programs receiving federal funds in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 666 (a) (1) (B), conspiracy to commit bribery in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 371, and filing false tax returns in violation of 26 U.S.C. § 7206 (1). United States v. Ganim, 510 F.3d 134, 136 (2d Cir. 2007), cert. denied, 552 U.S. 1313, 128 S. Ct. 1911, 170 L. Ed. 2d 749 (2008). The events underlying the defendant's convictions are summarized, as follows, in the opinion of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit upholding those convictions. "As mayor [of the city], [the defendant] was responsible for the overall operation of municipal government and, among other responsibilities, had final authority over the [c]ity's contracts. During his first campaign for mayor, [the defendant] became acquainted with Leonard J. Grimaldi (Grimaldi), who acted as a media advi-sor, and Paul J. Pinto (Pinto), who began as his driver and aide. [The defendant] developed close relationships with Grimaldi and Pinto over the years that followed. Grimaldi subsequently formed a public relations company called Harbor Communications, of which he was the sole proprietor and employee. Pinto became associated with (and later purchased an ownership interest in) the Kasper Group, a Bridgeport architecture and engineering firm.
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