Former Chelsea selectwoman Carole Swan, serving more than seven years in federal prison for extortion and fraud, has lost her second bid for freedom pending appeal.
The judge who presided over both her jury trials last year wrote that despite Swan’s “hyperbolic language and charges,” the court denied her request because she did not demonstrate that her appeal “is not for purposes of delay and that it raises a substantial question of law likely to result in reversal or an order for a new trial under (federal statute).”
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U.S. District Court Chief Judge John A. Woodcock Jr. issued the order Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Bangor. It appeared on the court’s website on Friday.
Swan, 56, began serving an 87-month prison term in August at the Federal Correctional Institution in Danbury, Conn. Her release date is Dec. 6, 2020, according to the Federal Inmate Locator website.
Swan, through attorney Darla J. Mondou, sought to be free while the appeal of her convictions and her sentence is pending at the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Swan in July was unsuccessful at delaying her prison term. At that time Woodcock ruled that she “failed to sustain her burden to demonstrate that she intends to raise a ‘substantial question of law or fact.'”
Swan was convicted Sept. 17 of three counts of extortion for using her position as a selectwoman to seek kickbacks from Frank Monroe, who held the contract to plow and sand Chelsea’s roads. Swan was convicted July 27, 2013, of two counts of workers compensation fraud and five counts of income tax fraud. She was sentenced on June 13 of this year.
In the most recent bid for relief, Swan challenged a number of federal court rulings, including those made by Woodcock and a magistrate judge over several years of proceedings in U.S. District Court in Bangor.
In particular, she challenged a ruling denying her motion to suppress statements she made to Kennebec County Sheriff’s deputies on Feb. 3, 2011, shortly after they stopped her vehicle on Chapel Street in Augusta and demanded the return of a sting package she had received from Monroe just moments before.
In the motion, Mondou wrote that “Carole’s unsworn and un-counseled statements were admitted as evidence in both trials … If decided favorably to her, the relief will be a reversal of her convictions, a new trial, or a favorable adjustment to her sentence.”
In his motion opposing Swan’s most recent bid for release pending appeal, Assistant U.S. Attorney Donald Clark, said “The defendant is a corrupt public-official, three-time extorter and a multi-year defrauder of two government programs. Her perjury during these criminal proceedings was pervasive …”
Clark said Swan repeatedly committed perjury on the witness stand, which resulted in a finding by the court that she obstructed justice.
The case began in 2011 with charges in state court and then went to federal court after Swan and her husband Marshall Swan were indicted by federal grand juries on a number of charges.
Marshall Swan was convicted at a separate jury trial of five counts of federal income tax fraud covering tax years 2006 to 2010 and is serving a 33-month prison term in Devens Federal Medical Center, in Ayer, Mass. The Swans filed their tax returns jointly. His scheduled release date is Oct. 22, 2016.
The Swans paid all the taxes owed plus Carole Swan’s restitution for workers compensation fraud and for damage to Monroe’s equipment, as well as fines imposed, a total of more than $400,000 by late July.
The charges against Carole Swan, which included an accusation that she improperly funneled a federally funded reconstruction project on Windsor Road to the company she and her husband operated, caused major divisions among residents and major problems for and among town officials.
She was found not guilty of fraud involving the Windsor Road culvert project and also of two additional counts of workers’ compensation fraud.
Betty Adams — 621-5631
Twitter: @betadams
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