"Only dull people are brilliant at breakfast" -Oscar Wilde |
"The liberal soul shall be made fat, and he that watereth, shall be watered also himself." -- Proverbs 11:25 |
Giordano's attorney argued before the 2nd U.S. Circuit of Appeals on Wednesday that the former mayor wasn't using his political power when he paid to have oral sex with the 8- and 10-year-old girls.
If the three-panel appeals court agrees, it could jeopardize Giordano's conviction and 37-year prison sentence.
During an hour-long court hearing Wednesday, Judge Dennis Jacobs said that committing a crime while mayor is not necessarily the same thing as using political office to commit a crime.
Jacobs suggested that Giordano didn't need to use his political power to force the girls into sex.
"Did the children testify that they wouldn't have submitted if he hadn't been the mayor?" Jacobs asked federal prosecutors. "They never said that because it's not true."
Between 2000 and 2001, Giordano paid a crack-addicted prostitute to bring her daughter and niece to City Hall, his home and his law office for oral sex. After each encounter, Giordano told the girls not to talk about it or the woman would go to jail.
Prosecutors said those warnings, plus the fact that Giordano drove a police cruiser and carried a badge, made him an intimidating figure whom the girls were afraid to disobey.
"He watched over them like God," Assistant U.S. Attorney Peter Jongbloed said. "He ruled the city."