A federal judge said Wednesday he still needs to weigh issues about how to assign responsibility and whether $10 million in legal fees should be included in restitution payments from three former utilities officials convicted for their roles in planning trips to the Kentucky Derby and a West Virginia resort.

U.S. District Court Judge Jeffrey A. Meyer delayed his ruling on the restitution amounts and asked the parties to file additional briefs after hearing arguments during a 90-minute hearing in U.S. District Court in New Haven.

Former Connecticut Municipal Electric Energy Cooperative CEO Drew Rankin, seen by the court as the lead planner of the trips, former Norwich Public Utilities General Manager and CMEEC board vice chairman John Bilda and former CMEEC board and Norwich utilities commission chairman James Sullivan have each been convicted of one count of theft from a program receiving federal funds.

Meyer must consider widely divergent arguments made by attorneys for CMEEC, deemed the financial victim in the case, federal prosecutors and attorneys for the three defendants.

Restitution calculations became complicated, because the jury found Rankin, Sullivan and Bilda guilty on one count each of theft, but not guilty on related charges of conspiracy and theft in connection with Kentucky Derby trips in 2014.

Federal prosecutors had dropped charges related to the 2016 trips during the November 2021 trial, but prosecutors still want to include deposits paid in 2015 for the 2016 trip in the restitution.

Two other former CMEEC officials, former CFO Edward Pryor and former Groton Utilities commissioner and CMEEC board member Edward DeMuzzio were acquitted on all charges. But legal defense costs for those defendants are included in the $9.5 million total CMEEC is seeking to recover in defense costs and the $342,881 CMEEC seeks to recover in legal bills paid to two outside firms that worked on the case.

The lavish trips, hosted by CMEEC from 2013 through 2016, collectively cost $1.2 million and included dozens of board members, top CMEEC staff, family members, friends, business associates and CMEEC vendors and public officials. The group flew on private jets, dined in high-priced restaurants, played golf, attended horse races and purchased gifts using CMEEC revenues meant to be turned over to member utilities to help stabilize electric rates for ratepayers.

Defense attorneys strongly objected to CMEEC’s restitution request, which covers the entire time from initial government subpoenas and 2018 indictments through the criminal trial and restitution arguments.

Lawyers for Rankin, Bilda and Sullivan argued their clients could be held accountable only for costs of an August 2015 trip to The Greenbrier golf resort in West Virginia. That trip, attended by Rankin, Bilda, Sullivan and DeMuzzio, was labeled as a scouting trip to see if the resort was suitable for the much larger retreat in October. The divided cost of the trip would be $5,361.85 per defendant, the defense attorneys argued.

They argued all the Kentucky Derby trips, and an October 2015 Greenbrier trips were legitimate board retreats sanctioned by the CMEEC Board of Directors.

Judge Meyer questioned the defense attorneys’ reasoning that the Kentucky Derby trips could not be counted, as they were approved by the CMEEC board. He recalled he specifically instructed the jury at the trial that it could not find a guilty verdict if jury members felt the so-called retreats were legitimate board expenses.

During the hearing, Judge Meyer told Assistant U.S. Attorney Sarah P. Karwan that he was grappling with how to tie the broad request by CMEEC for more than $10 million in reimbursement of all legal costs with the trio’s conviction on costs attributable to the 2015 Derby and Greenbrier trips.

Meyer called the legal fees requested by CMEEC “the elephant in the room.” Defense attorney Christopher M. Barrett, representing Rankin, started questioning individual invoices CMEEC had submitted, when Meyer cut off discussion and asked him to file a written explanation of each invoice in one week. Meyer asked the government to respond a week later.

Turning to the actual costs of the trips, Meyer said the trial evidence showed that Rankin was the chief orchestrator of the trips, proposed them to the board, bought the tickets and sent out invitations and itineraries.

During sentencings in May, Meyer attributed the entire cost of the 2015 trips totaling $502,242 to Rankin. Sullivan, who did not attend the October 2015 trip to The Greenbrier, was assigned $104,765 in costs and Bilda, $213,782 in costs for the 2015 trips.

Rankin’s attorney, Craig A. Raabe, however, argued that while Rankin did propose the board retreats, the full CMEEC board endorsed the concept and have him the go-ahead to plan the trips.

“Mr. Rankin was doing what the board instructed him to do,” Raabe said.

c.bessette@theday.com