HARTFORD -- Joseph P. Ganim, the disgraced former Bridgeport mayor, did not appear before the state Supreme Court on Tuesday to request the return of his law license.
But his attorney had a message for the high court.
"Mr. Ganim maintains his innocence," Harold L. Rosnick said during the hour-long appeal of a judicial panel's rejection of Ganim's application for readmission to the bar.
Skeptical jurists focused questions on the power of three Superior Court judges who rejected a recommendation from a group of five experienced lawyers who agreed that Ganim, 56, should be reinstated.
"The committee made its call in this case after a very thorough and fair evaluation of the facts," Rosnick said.
Patricia King, attorney for the Statewide Grievance Committee that disciplines wayward lawyers, said because Ganim hasn't shown public remorse for the 16 corruption felonies that landed him in federal prison for seven years, his application should be rejected.
"The problem that this case presents is we have a recommendation in favor of admission, but important findings of fact by the three-judge panel," King said. "The court has some authority to decide who to admit to the practice of law. The recommendation is only a recommendation."
Chief Justice Chase T. Rogers joined Associate Justice Richard N. Palmer in peppering Rosnick and King with questions. Rogers focused on the gap between the judicial panel's rejection and the lawyers' proposal that Ganim be readmitted.
"Would it be wrong for us to say it's clearly erroneous that they did not consider the types of crimes Mr. Ganim was convicted of?" Rogers asked Rosnick about the earlier group of lawyers.
"It is one fact along with all the facts," Rosnick replied.
The Superior Court judges cited Ganim's lack of remorse and his lying on the witness stand during the 2003 federal corruption trial as among the major reasons for turning down his application for reinstatement. In addition to the seven years in prison, Ganim was put under three years of supervised release, which ended in July.
"It is our position that the court wrongly imposed a per se requirement that Mr. Ganim has to admit the wrongdoing," Rosnick said. "They want Mr. Ganim to say `I did it and I'm sorry.' "
"Can we consider that the district court judge found he was not truthful?" Rogers asked Rosnick.
"Federal court findings are not relevant in a case such as this," Rosnick said.
"The trial court panel made an independent finding that he had lied," Rogers countered. "Can we consider as a fact that the district court found that he had lied?"
"It is a fact from 10 years before," Rosnick said. "Rehabilitation can take place during incarceration."
But Palmer reminded Rosnick of Ganim's perjury on the witness stand during his corruption trial, which laid out an elaborate extortion and kickback conspiracy.
"Mr. Ganim maintains his innocence. Should he apologize? To me that would show less character, rather than more," Rosnick said.
"What is he remorseful for if he believes he's actually innocent?" Palmer asked King.
"He needs to acknowledge how he came to be in a four-year crime spree while he was the mayor of Bridgeport," King said.