[Editor’s Note: Synagro is the same sewage sludge company that OCA activists have been fighting against in San Francisco. Visit OCA’s Toxic Sludge Resource page for more details.]

Former Detroit City Councilwoman Monica Conyers was sentenced today to 37 months and two years supervised probation and no fine in the Synagro bribery scandal that rocked the city of Detroit.

The sentencing came even after Conyers several times told the judge that she wanted withdraw her guilty plea.

The 37 months is the top of the sentencing guidelines recommended by the probation department. She has 10 days to appeal; otherwise, she’ll start serving on July 1.

U.S. District Judge Avern Cohn said that Conyers’ conduct in office “fell woefully short” of the standard expected of public servants, and that she violated basic standards of conduct going back to the book of Exodus.

He said the sentence of 37 months was in line with other public officials who have fallen afoul of the law, and her sentence is greater than other defendants because her conduct was “more egregious.”

She was still agitated after the sentencing as family and friends and court officials tried to calm her.

“I’m walking out the front door, and I’m appealing this case.” She also said, “I don’t want to go out the back.”

She repeatedly said she wanted to appeal the case as court security officers cleared the courtroom and eventually the hallway.