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Connecticut Mayor Jailed on Charges of Sex With Minors

Calls for resignation follow arrest

Originally published by The Associated Press, July 27, 2001.

NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) — Waterbury Mayor Philip Giordano, who lost the U.S. Senate race to Sen. Joseph Lieberman last year, was arrested Thursday on federal sex charges involving a minor.

Giordano, 38, was charged with using an interstate facility to entice a minor to engage in sexual activity, and with conspiracy to commit that act.

FBI Special Agent Michael Wolf said there were multiple victims under age 16, but said the charges involved only one person. Investigators would not provide any other details.

If convicted, the Republican mayor of the state’s fifth-largest city could be sentenced to 10 years in prison and fined $250,000.

FBI agents searched Giordano’s office Thursday and interviewed City Hall employees. Repeated calls to the mayor’s office and to his attorney were not returned.

Giordano, who is married and has three children, was arraigned in U.S. District Court in Bridgeport on Thursday and ordered held without bail. He was scheduled to return to court on Tuesday.

Gov. John G. Rowland, like Giordano a Republican from Waterbury, called for the mayor to resign immediately.

“Stepping down is the right thing to do for the city and his family,” Rowland said in a news release.

The arrest comes as Waterbury grapples with a state takeover of its finances and an estimated $60 million deficit. State overseers earlier this year approved a budget that includes a 30 percent property tax increase and severe cuts in city programs.

Giordano, who was first elected mayor in 1995, made an unsuccessful bid for U.S. Senate last year against Lieberman, who sought re-election while running for vice president.

Giordano announced last week he would not seek a fourth two-year term.

City Hall came to a standstill as FBI and IRS agents sifted through documents in the comptroller’s office and closed off Giordano’s office, where they interviewed members of his staff. Agents also visited the office of the city’s budget director before leaving City Hall with two boxes.

Agents also searched Giordano’s home, the largest in his suburban neighborhood. Neighbors said they did not know what to make of the charges against a man they often saw playing games with his children on his front lawn.

“It was shocking and weird. I feel bad for the kids who have to go through this,” said Michael Silva, 17, whose family visits with the Giordanos during holidays.