A lawyer representing Shelton developer James Botti will try this week to convince a panel of federal judges his client deserves a new trial.
Botti is currently serving a six-year prison term at a minimum security federal prison in West Virginia on a mail fraud conviction.
Oral arguments in his appeal are scheduled for 10 a.m. Wednesday before the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in New York City.
Botti, formerly a prominent developer of several projects in Shelton, was convicted in March 2010 by a jury at U.S. District Court in New Haven on one count of honest services mail fraud. The jury deadlocked on other charges, including allegations that he bribed Mayor Mark Lauretti in return for the mayor’s support of his projects. A federal judge later dismissed the other charges.
He has a projected release date of Feb. 19, 2016, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons.
Botti’s lawyer, George W. Ganim Jr., of Bridgeport, filed court documents last August in the appeal, in which he argued that a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision handed down after Botti’s conviction is enough to call for a new trial.
On Wednesday, both Ganim and government prosecutors will be given eight minutes each to present their arguments in the case to a panel of judges who will then deliberate and issue a ruling at some point in the future.
Botti will not participate at Wednesday’s hearing.
Ganim’s argument, according to court documents:
The instructions given by U.S. District Court Judge Charles Haight, Jr. to a jury in Botti’s case “clearly failed to limit the jury’s consideration to bribery or kickbacks in order to convict the Appellant of Honest Services Mail Fraud.” Since the Supreme Court’s ruling narrowed the scope of the law governing Honest Services Mail Fraud, Ganim argued, Botti should get a new trial.
A message was left at Ganim’s office seeking comment on the case Monday afternoon. His brief is posted below. Article continues after the document.
Prosecutors’ arguments, according to court documents:
Even if the judge did err in his instructions to the jury, such an error was “harmless beyond a reasonable doubt.”
“Given that the only theory offered by the Government to support the honest services fraud conviction was a bribe theory, the jury did not convict defendant on an impermissible non-bribery theory,” prosecutors wrote.
The government’s brief is posted below.
Government Reply Brief, Botti Appeal
The FBI has been probing corruption allegations for years.
Click here to read stories about the Botti cases.
Click here to read more about alleged corruption in Shelton.
The federal probe has resulted in the conviction of Botti, his father, Peter Botti, former Shelton building inspector Elliot Wilson, and noted Shelton developer Robert Scinto.
Federal prosecutors have accused Shelton Mayor Mark Lauretti of unethical practices, but the mayor has denied the accusations. He has never been charged with a crime.
