Establishment Republican former CT. Gov. John Rowland who spent 9 months in the slammer is mentioned in new financial corruption, abruptly quits his WTIC talk show

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"I knowingly and intentionally conspired with co-conspirator one, who was John Rowland."
 
4/3/14, "In Shadow Of Probe, Rowland Leaves As WTIC Talk-Show Host," The Hartford Courant, by JON LENDER, CHRISTOPHER KEATING and EDMUND H. MAHONY,

"Former Gov. John G. Rowland, identified Monday in federal court as a co-conspirator in an alleged campaign financing scheme, announced Thursday that he was leaving as WTIC-AM's afternoon talk-show host.

"Today will be my last show as I leave the station to take care of some personal issues," he said just before 6 p.m, at the end of his regular three-hour time slot.

"We accept Mr. Rowland's decision to step down at this time," WTIC Program Director Jenneen Lee said in an email at 6:06 p.m. "Pastor Will will take over the 3 to 6 p.m. show beginning on Monday." She was referring to Pastor Will Marotti of New Life Church of Meriden, Rowland's co-host from the start of his show in 2010 through 2012.

Rowland's surprise announcement came three days after businessman Brian Foley and his wife, former congressional candidate Lisa Wilson-Foley, admitted in federal court in Hartford that they used a sham consulting contract with Rowland to secretly pay him for political assistance to Wilson-Foley's 2012 campaign.

Documents introduced in court Monday demonstrated dramatically the efforts of federal investigators to build a case for Rowland's possible indictment by a grand jury.

Rowland, whose show was preempted by baseball on Monday, returned to the microphone for his show Tuesday and said, "I am not going to be discussing the recent news and legal developments ... I want to respect the process."

That day, Lee said that WTIC was "monitoring the situation closely, and in the meantime he will continue to host his program."

That changed within two days – although neither Rowland nor WTIC gave details of what led to his resignation on Thursday.

Rowland's abrupt departure came after he'd been talking to a candidate for lieutenant governor, David Walker. When Rowland came back from a commercial, he said it would be his final show, and, as he went off the air, said: "God bless you all."

Walker said Thursday night that he noticed nothing unusual in Rowland's demeanor during the 90 minutes he spent in the Farmington studio with him.

"The only thing that was unusual was his producer said, 'John, you need to read your email,'" Walker said Rowland was told about an hour before his show ended. "After he got the email, he started doing some texting [during] the breaks. I don't know if that had anything to do with it. I just don't know."
 
The afternoon talk show was going to be preempted again on Friday by a baseball game. Marotti will pick up the show Monday afternoon after having served as a fill-in host at the station since he quit as Rowland's regular on-air partner in 2012.

Rowland's stint as a political commentator on WTIC represented a public comeback
after his fall from grace in 2004. He resigned in the middle of that year as governor — after more than nine years in office — and later spent 10 months in federal prison after pleading guilty to corruption.

On Monday, both Foleys pleaded guilty to conspiring with Rowland and others to violate campaign finance law by concealing $35,000 that Brian Foley paid to the former governor from October 2011 to March 2012 through a law office associated with his chain of nursing homes, Apple Rehab. Brian Foley has agreed to cooperate in the investigation of Rowland, and said in court Monday: "I knowingly and intentionally conspired with co-conspirator one, who was John Rowland."

"Co-Conspirator 1" is what federal prosecutors called Rowland in a document introduced in court Monday. Their continuing probe started two years ago when investigators began questioning witnesses as to whether the $35,000 that Brian Foley's company paid Rowland was instead unreported compensation from the campaign of his wife. She was campaigning at the time — unsuccessfully, as it turned out — for the Republican nomination in the 5th District.

Both Rowland and WTIC had been absorbing public criticism over the governor-turned-host's relationship with the Foleys – most recently on Tuesday, when Gov. Dannel P. Malloy said that the station should dump him.

Malloy cited Rowland's use of his radio show to criticize one of Wilson-Foley's opponents in the 2012 congressional race for the GOP's 5th District nomination, eventual nominee Andrew Roraback, who went on to lose the election to Democrat Elizabeth Esty. Rowland did not tell his listeners that he was being paid by Wilson-Foley's husband at the time that he criticized Roraback.

On Thursday, four years as a marquee personality distilled down to 40 final seconds in which he announced his departure and thanked station employees including on-air colleague Mark Christopher, the traffic reporter.

"Tomorrow, the Red Sox will be on at this hour, and you will be enjoying them," he said. "But I also want to say that today will be my last show, as I'm leaving the station to take care of some personal issues. And I want to thank you all. I want to thank you all for listening. I want to thank you for your tremendous support. I want to thank you for your loyalty. It's been a great experience, and we'll take it from there. God bless you all.''

"Ryan Cosgrove, thank you, sir. You've been great adult supervision – and all of our other friends here. Mark Christopher, and Mike and everybody else," Rowland said. "I appreciate it very, very much, and I am truly blessed.''"...via Free Rep.




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