New Haven — In the summer of 2016, then-Norwich utilities Commissioner Larry Goldman saw a Facebook post showing tickets to the Kentucky Derby, photos of participants boarding a private jet and enjoying a cocktail party in a private tent at their Kentucky hotel.

Goldman said that was when he first learned that local utilities officials and guests had attended trips to the Kentucky Derby. He said he “screamed” to his wife and started asking utility management officials for more information about the trips.

Goldman was subpoenaed to testify for the prosecution in the federal criminal trial of five former Connecticut Municipal Electric Energy Cooperative officials indicted on federal corruption charges related to trips to the Kentucky Derby and two other trips to The Greenbrier luxury golf resort in West Virginia.

Former Connecticut Municipal Electric Energy Cooperative CEO Drew Rankin, former CFO Edward Pryor, former Norwich Public Utilities General Manager John Bilda and former CMEEC board members James Sullivan of Norwich and Edward DeMuzzio of Groton face felony charges of conspiracy and theft from a program that receives federal funds in association with the trips.

CMEEC had arranged the trips for dozens of top staff, board members, some family members, local political leaders, vendors and others from 2013 to 2016. Four of the defendants face four theft charges, while Sullivan faces three charges, as he resigned from CMEEC and the Norwich utility commission prior to the 2016 Kentucky Derby trip.

CMEEC is owned by its member municipal utilities: Norwich Public Utilities, Groton Utilities, Bozrah Light & Power, Jewett City Department of Public Utilities, South Norwalk Electric and Water and Norwalk Third Taxing District. Prosecutors allege the defendants had used money derived from CMEEC revenues intended to be returned to the member utilities as rate stabilization funds.

Goldman said when he learned of the trip, he sent emails to CMEEC CEO Rankin asking for minutes of the cooperative’s board meetings over the past three years. He said he did not find what he was looking for in the minutes once he had received them.

Also during Tuesday’s trial, former CMEEC general counsel Philip Sussler continued testimony started Monday under cross-examination by defendants’ attorneys. On Monday, in testimony during prosecutors’ questions, Sussler had said he was not aware of the Derby trips and at first thought a retreat to Kentucky was being held at property Rankin had owned there.

In response to questions posed by attorney Thomas J. Murphy, representing Sullivan, Sussler said he was aware that some CMEEC officials were on retreat in Kentucky during Kentucky Derby weekend in May 2014. Sussler sent an email to top CMEEC officials that weekend that in part read: “for those in the Bluegrass state, this is not intended to interfere with your enjoyment of the Derby today.”

Murphy continued by displaying a portion of the CMEEC bylaws in place at the time and noted that the whistleblower provision would have required Sussler to report the Kentucky Derby trips had he thought they violated the law.

In response, Sussler said he did not think the trips, including Kentucky Derby tickets, violated the law, “based on the limited information I had.” He told Murphy his perception was that the trips involved “a prior pattern of what a strategic retreat would have been,” including presentations, business meetings and discussions.

He continued that he had “no conception” that the trips involved chartered private jets and other claims outlined in the indictments.

Sussler said he was not aware of the October 2015 trip to The Greenbrier, but Murphy displayed a phone record showing Sussler left a voicemail message for Rankin on Oct. 20, that said: “hope you had a good time at the retreat.” Sussler said he did not recall leaving the message.

Murphy relayed other conversations Sussler allegedly had with outside parties, including a concern expressed to an attorney colleague that he could be blamed for the controversy. Sussler denied that characterization.

Murphy persisted, saying that Sussler had knowledge of the trips and failed to investigate whether they were appropriate. Sussler said he had no reason to question the actions of highly skilled, top officials. In early 2016, when Bilda asked him if the Kentucky Derby trips were OK, Sussler said he asked for more details and expected to receive more information on which he could base a legal opinion. No information was provided, and he did not pursue the matter.

The questioning became contentious at times, with Murphy repeatedly asking whether Sussler told the participants, board or others that the trips were illegal or improper. Sussler repeatedly responded that with the limited information he had — including assumption that the trips involved traditional strategic retreats, rather than the descriptions that surfaced in the criminal indictments — he did not think the trips were improper or illegal.

Attorney Bartley Halloran pursued the early 2016 conversation with Sussler, Bilda and Rankin that Sussler said occurred in a lunch line following a board meeting, when Bilda asked if the Kentucky Derby trips were OK.

“Mr. Bilda and Mr. Rankin could have come back to me with what the trip entailed and they did not,” Sussler said.

Halloran countered that Sussler did not follow up and ask for more details, did not seek information from CMEEC finance officials or other CMEEC staff or board members. Halloran displayed detailed billing records from Sussler at the time that showed hundreds of billing hours. Sussler responded that at the time, his perception was that “strategic retreats meant something,” and that “the fire alarms aren’t going off.”

Following cross-examination, Assistant U.S. Attorney Sarah Karwan peppered Sussler with questions on whether anyone had told him of the itinerary of the Derby trips, the guest lists and the costs, to all of which Sussler responded “no.” Asked if he ever flew by private jet to any CMEEC conference, he also said no.

c.bessette@theday.com