In a lengthy appeal brief this week to the U.S. Court of Appeals, the three former utility cooperative officials convicted of theft in connection with lavish trips to the Kentucky Derby seek the reversal of their conviction or a new trial and ask that restitution orders be revoked.

The three former officials with the Connecticut Municipal Electric Energy Cooperative were convicted in December 2021 on a single count each of theft from a program receiving federal funding in connection with their leadership roles in planning trips to the Kentucky Derby and The Greenbrier golf resort in West Virginia in 2015.

Attorneys for former CMEEC CEO Drew Rankin, former Norwich Public Utilities General Manager and CMEEC board vice chairman John Bilda and former CMEEC and Norwich utilities commission chairman James Sullivan filed a joint appeal brief Tuesday in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in New York City.

“This appeal arises from a misguided criminal prosecution that was the product of government overreach and misconduct,” attorneys for the three men wrote at the beginning of their 144-page appeal brief.

The attorneys noted that the three men were convicted on just one of four initial charges stemming from the 2018 indictment, and two co-defendants, former CMEEC CFO Edward Pryor and former Groton Utilities commissioner and CMEEC board member Edward DeMuzzio, were acquitted on all four charges.

Rankin was sentenced in May 2023 to serve one year in prison followed by three years of probation and to pay CMEEC $374,400 in restitution. Bilda and Sullivan each were sentenced to six months in prison, three years of probation and ordered to pay $187,200 in restitution to CMEEC.

The attorneys seek either revocation of the jury conviction or a new trial on just the one convicted count. And they seek to throw out the restitutions. Judge Meyer postponed the sentences and restitution payments pending the appeal.

The attorneys repeated detailed arguments and cited evidence presented at the November 2021 jury trial and during sentencing and restitution hearings before Judge Jeffrey A. Meyer in U.S. District Court in New Haven. They claimed federal prosecutors prejudiced the jury by continuing to present “inflammatory” evidence pertaining to a theft count for CMEEC’s 2016 Kentucky Derby trip, which prosecutors withdrew during the trial.

The attorneys also argued that government attorneys repeatedly and erroneously referred to the “member towns” as owners of CMEEC, when it is the municipal utilities that own the cooperative.

The error meant that federal funding to the municipalities in excess of the $10,000 threshold needed for the theft charges was cited repeatedly as the basis for the charge of theft from a program receiving federal funding.

CMEEC, they argued, retained only $9,363 from a federal grant in 2015, transferring $864,154 to the member utilities to purchase high-tech electric meters.

The attorneys also rejected claims that CMEEC was the victim in the case and entitled to retribution payments. They repeated arguments made during the trial and restitution hearings that CMEEC officials testified that the CMEEC board benefited from what CMEEC called strategic retreats for board members, top CMEEC staff, family members, business associates, public officials and invited guests.

CMEEC also never sought reimbursement for trip expenses from the dozens of other participants following the public outcry over the trips, the attorneys argued.

“CMEEC itself had shown through its conduct that it did not consider those amounts to be a ‘loss,’” the attorneys wrote.

Under Rankin’s leadership, CMEEC hosted lavish trips to the Kentucky Derby from 2013 through 2016 for dozens of CMEEC officials, their family members and guests and hosted a retreat in October 2015 to The Greenbrier. In August 2015, Rankin, Bilda, Sullivan and DeMuzzio visited The Greenbrier on what they called a scouting trip in preparation for the larger retreat in October.

News media reports of the trips in October 2016 elicited strong criticism from the public, municipal leaders and state legislatures. The outcry prompted CMEEC to cancel the 2017 trip. The federal investigation started that fall with multiple subpoenas to CMEEC, member utilities and host municipalities.

The trips cost $1.2 million, paid for by CMEEC revenues, money meant to be turned over to the member municipal utilities to stabilize rates for their customers.

c.bessette@theday.com