Paul Bass, Facebook (Borer), Mark Mirko/Courant (Ganim) Photos
The Easter Seals book bin. Inset: Borer (left), Ganim (right).
When disgraced former Bridgeport Mayor Joseph Ganim needed “community service” hours to restart his law career, he found a friend on New Haven’s Hamilton Street — and was soon sorting through donated books looking for computer codes.
Ganim, who was released from federal prison earlier this year after serving six years on a public corruption conviction, needs 100 hours of community service in order to apply to have his law license restored. (He lost his license upon being convicted.)
Ganim went to H. Richard Borer, who runs Easter Seals Goodwill Industries on Hamilton, to earn some of those hours. Before taking over the regional Easter Seals operation, Borer served as mayor of West Haven. He and Ganim ran their cities around the same time and became friends.
“Our mission [at Easter Seals] is to provide job training [and post-prison reentry work] for people with disabilities and other special needs,” Borer said. “Joe might fit under the category of ‘other special needs.’”
Under a court order, Ganim is eligible to apply to have his law license reinstated beginning March 4, 2011, assuming he racks up the community service hours, obtains 12 hours of continuing legal education, and pays all fines and restitution associated with his crimes. “He told me he plans to apply,” said Michael P. Bowler, counsel for the state Judicial Branch’s Statewide Grievance Committee.
Borer found work for Ganim sorting through the tractor-trailer loads of donated books that arrive at the Easter Seals warehouse on State Street in Hamden. Ganim sorts out books published after 1972, those that have ISBN identification numbers printed on the jackets. Then other volunteers, people with autism, scan the books into a computer so they can go up for sale through Amazon.com. (For information on donating books, clothes, or old computers to Goodwill, click here.)
Ganim doesn’t get paid for the work, and he has no set hours, according to Borer. He started showing up over the past month. At first Borer put him on “Dumpster detail.” Ganim “did not complain a bit,” but Borer realized he could put the former mayor to better use, he said. “He’s a bright guy.”
“He didn’t hesitate to get his hands dirty,” reported Peter C. Bright (pictured), director of the Hamden warehouse. “He was very pleasant to talk to. He’s a very engaging person.”
Ganim did not return repeated calls for comment left with his family’s law firm in Bridgeport, where a secretary said he has been working as a paralegal. In an interview aired last Friday on NBC Channel 30, Ganim said he’s also volunteering at Bridgeport’s YMCA toward regaining his law license. (He was still arguing he’d been unfairly treated by the court system and he didn’t rule out running for office again.)
Assuming Ganim does apply to be reinstated, his application would first come before Fairfield County’s Standing Committee on Recommendations to the Bar. If that committee decides in his favor, it forwards his appeal to a three-judge panel, which holds its own hearing before making a final decision.
“It has been my experience that it can go either way,” said Bowler of the Grievance Committee. “It really depends on the case the suspended lawyer puts on about their reformation.”