As He Returns To City Council, Newton’s Retrial Postponed

From Ken Dixon, CT Post:

The cufflinks glittered. The loafers were burgundy suede, accentuating his shirt and tie, the khaki trench coat, the matching hat and the white scarf.

The color coordination could only mean that Ernest E. Newton II, the once and future Bridgeport politician, was back in Hartford Superior Court, still dealing with a 2012 campaign-finance case that could possibly return to federal prison the man who once called himself “the Moses of my people.”

It took Newton, the confident, recently elected City Council member and former convicted felon, a minute and 40 seconds in front of Judge Laura F. Baldini, who delayed, yet again, his retrial on four charges connected with a mysterious $500 that showed up at a crucial moment back in the summer of 2012 when he tried to make an initial political comeback running for his former state Senate seat.

This time, the retrial was postponed until at least June 13, pending the outcome of a procedural claim on his previous hung-jury case.

Newton declined comment after the brief hearing, but his public defender, J.L. Stawicki, said that Newton is a small fish compared with last year’s $325,000 fine that the Democratic State Central Committee paid to settle charges that Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s 2014 campaign used money from a federal account including contributions from state contractors who are banned from contributing to statewide races.

Full story here.