"Bordeaux" Joe Ganim Released from prison.

[madinmaryland]

http://www.newstimes.com/news/article/Ganim-released-from-prison-enters-Hartford-331409.php

Former Bridgeport Mayor Joseph P. Ganim, convicted on federal corruption charges and imprisoned in 2003, began his long return home Thursday.

The former five-term mayor, credited with leading the city back from the brink of fiscal disaster and considered a strong contender for governor before his conviction, was released from the McKean Federal Prison Camp in Lewis Run, Pa. He was transferred to the Watkinson House in Hartford, where he will serve the final six months of his prison term.

"The whole family was there to meet him," said George Ganim Sr., the former mayor's father. "Everybody was there, and we shed some tears. I have to say it was one of the great joys in my life to see him back home."

Ganim, 50, has been incarcerated since Sept. 16, 2003, when he was sentenced to nine years in prison for his conviction on 16 federal corruption charges after a two-month trial. The term expires completely on July 19, at which point Ganim will spend the next three years under the supervision of a federal probation officer.

His nine-year prison term was reduced 54 days each year by a record of good behavior and further reduced last September when the U.S. Bureau of Prisons shaved off a year following his completion of a 500-hour substance-abuse program.

..snip

I met him in 2002 at a Christmas tree lighting in Bridgeport.

[Turbineguy]

1. I guess he promised

not to touch the green, green grass of home.

[CTyankee]

2. He used to get his special wines from my wine store in New Haven.

It's quite convenient near an exit off the Wilber Cross Parkway. Great store.

I worked in the Bridgeport area for the Kennedy Center for 4 years, 1994-98. Ganim was a big deal. I didn't know him, tho.

I always felt sorry for what happened to Bridgeport but I would get plenty mad when they would say "New Haven would be just like Bridgeport if it didn't have Yale." Well, the fact is that we DO have Yale. And who cares about that anyway...