Giordano Receives 37-Year Prison Sentence

Giordano Could Have Faced Life In Prison

POSTED: 10:33 a.m. EDT June 13, 2003
UPDATED: 5:45 p.m. EDT June 13, 2003

WEST HARTFORD, Conn. -- Philip Giordano, the former Waterbury mayor convicted of violating the civil rights of two girls he sexually abused, has been sentenced Friday morning.


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Giordano, who pleaded not guilty, was sentenced to 37 years in prison.

Giordano's sister and mother attended the sentencing. His wife was not present.

"This case is the worst I have ever seen," said U.S. District Judge Alan Nevas in passing sentence. "Your conduct is the worst I have ever seen. I've seen drug dealers, murderers. What you did is indescribable."

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Nevas also noted that Giordano did not speak during the sentencing hearing.

"Most defendants have something to say, if nothing more than to turn and look at your mother and your sister and say, 'I'm sorry.'"

Nevas said Giordano had been "preying on two small, innocent children."

"They knew nothing. You, sir, are a sexual predator."

Giordano also was convicted in March of conspiring with a prostitute, who is the mother of one of the girls and an aunt of the other. Jurors convicted him on 14 of 15 counts of using an interstate device -- a cell phone -- to arrange the meetings with the girls.

Prosecutors said that Giordano used his cellular phone -- an interstate device -- to set up liaisons with the children and a convicted prostitute, Guitana Jones. Jones pleaded guilty to federal charges and testified at Giordano's federal trial.

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The girls also testified against the mayor. Prosecutor Peter Jongbloed, who portrayed Giordano as a corrupt liar during his closing arguments, pointed out that Giordano has acknowledged having sex with a prostitute and taking payoffs from contractors.

The FBI was investigating municipal corruption -- a probe it labeled "Operation LandPhil" -- when it stumbled upon phone calls in which Giordano set up meetings with Jones, her daughter and her niece. Neither Giordano nor anyone else has been charged with corruption.

On one of the taped conversations, Giordano talks with Jones while his sons can be heard in the background playing. On another call, Giordano told her, "I want one of the little girls."

On their last recorded conversation, Giordano warns the woman: "If my name gets mentioned, you might as well put a knife through your throat and kill yourself."

Giordano testified that he and the prostitute, a law client, had oral sex on numerous occasions but never in City Hall. He said the girls usually waited outside the law office. Giordano said he became aroused watching one of the girls in the waiting room but said he did not touch the girls.

First elected mayor in 1995, Giordano ran for U.S. Senate against Democrat Joe Lieberman in 2000, when Lieberman also ran for vice president on Al Gore's ticket. Giordano remained mayor after his arrest, but Sam Caligiuri, president of the Board of Alderman, ran the city until the November 2001 election, when voters chose former state Rep. Michael Jarjura to replace Giordano.

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