[JURIST] A three-judge panel in the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit [official website] rejected the appeal [ruling, PDF] of former Connecticut governor John Rowland’s corruption charges on Friday. In its ruling, the court stated that “Rowland was properly convicted … because he created or participated in the creation of documents that misrepresented—or “falsified”—his relationships with Congressional candidates, [Lisa] Wilson-Foley and Mark Greenberg.” Rowland had arranged to provide political consulting work for the aforementioned candidates in contravention of current campaign finance law, particularly in receiving payments from outside sources, such as Wilson-Foley’s husband’s nursing home company, so as to “avoid reporting the payments to the Federal Election Commission.” The court rejected arguments by Rowland’s attorney that “principles of contract law prevent [the court] from concluding that documents styled as contracts are ‘falsified’ within the meaning of the statute” and that the government had failed to disclose statements by Wilson-Foley which could have potentially prejudiced Rowland. Rowland faces a potential two-and-a-half year prison term.

This would not be the first time Rowland has served a prison sentence for corruption charges. In 2004 he pleaded guilty to corruption charges and served 10 months [JURIST reports] of a one-year sentence. At that time, Rowland had admitted to receiving more than $100,000 in gifts from state contractors.