United States Attorney's Office District of Connecticut
Press Release

SUPERIOR COURT JUDGE PLEADS GUILTY TO MAKING A FALSE STATEMENT TO A FEDERAL LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICER
Will resign position immediately

Kevin J. O'Connor, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, announced that Connecticut Superior Court Judge DANIEL E. BRENNAN, JR., age 61, of Madison, Connecticut, entered a plea of guilty today at the federal courthouse in Hartford to one count of knowingly and willfully making a materially false statement to a federal law enforcement officer. BRENNAN has served as a judge on the Connecticut Superior Court since March 1999, and as a condition of his guilty plea, he has agreed to resign from his position immediately.

U.S. Attorney O'Connor noted that on September 18, 2003, a federal grand jury returned an indictment against BRENNAN charging him with one count of endeavoring to obstruct justice and four counts of making false statements to federal law enforcement officers. Today's guilty plea to Count Two of the indictment arose from BRENNAN's intentional misstatements on March 12, 2002, to agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation concerning his financial dealings with William A. Trudeau, Jr., a former client of BRENNAN's while he was in the private practice of law.

BRENNAN admitted during today's guilty plea proceedings that, in early 2001, he sought to obtain a loan of $62,500 from Trudeau. BRENNAN knew at the time that he asked Trudeau for a loan that Trudeau was then the subject of a federal criminal investigation. Several weeks later, on February 22, 2001, Trudeau entered a plea of guilty in federal court to felony counts of failure to account and pay over employee taxes and interstate wire fraud.

BRENNAN further admitted that on February 6, 2001, he met with Trudeau, at which time he accepted a check for $10,000 from Trudeau. The check was made out to BRENNAN and written on an account in the name of a person whom BRENNAN knew to be Trudeau's uncle. BRENNAN accepted the check and in return gave Trudeau a written note promising to pay the money back with interest.

BRENNAN further admitted that on the following day of February 7, 2001, he took the check that he had received from Trudeau and used it to purchase a cashier's check in his own name at a bank in Connecticut. Rather than depositing this check to his account, however, BRENNAN gave the check back to Trudeau, and Trudeau in turn gave BRENNAN $10,000 in cash.

BRENNAN further admitted that on May 11, 2001, Trudeau met with him in an office at Trudeau's home. Trudeau produced a paper bag from under his desk and withdrew $52,500 in several bundles of cash. This money was purportedly the balance of the requested loan of $62,500. Trudeau placed the bundles of cash on the desk in front of BRENNAN, but BRENNAN refused to take the cash.

BRENNAN further admitted that on March 12, 2002, two Special Agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation met to interview him at his judicial chambers in Bridgeport, Connecticut. During the course of this interview, BRENNAN made statements that he knew to be false at the time that he made them and that were material to an investigation by the FBI of the financial dealings between BRENNAN and Trudeau. First, BRENNAN stated that he had not previously received a loan from Trudeau. Second, BRENNAN denied that he had ever seen Trudeau with more than $10,000 in cash at any time in the past five or six years (including during the time that BRENNAN was a state court judge).

"Today's guilty plea demonstrates that no person is above the law," stated U.S. Attorney O'Connor, "and it ensures the removal of a judge who was not suited to act in matters of utmost importance to the people of Connecticut."

The U.S. Attorney, however, stressed that there is no ongoing federal investigation related to the investigation and guilty plea of BRENNAN and that the federal investigation of BRENNAN has not disclosed misconduct involving any other judge of the Connecticut Superior Court. "This conviction should not be a reflection on our state judiciary," U.S. Attorney O'Connor added. "The people of Connecticut should continue to have great faith and confidence in the men and women who serve as state court judges."

BRENNAN is scheduled to be sentenced by Chief United States District Judge Robert N. Chatigny on April 16, 2004. He faces a maximum term of five years imprisonment, three years of supervised release, and a fine of up to $250,000.

The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Jeffrey A. Meyer.

CONTACT:

U.S. ATTORNEY'S OFFICE
Tom Carson
(203) 821-3722
thomas.carson@usdoj.gov