Ex-Detroit Councilwoman Monica Conyers files appeal in wake of prison sentence

"I'm not going to be made a scapegoat," Monica Conyers said yesterday –– her voice raised –– as U.S. District Judge Avern Cohn prepared to hand down a 37-month prison sentence for her role in the Synagro bribery scandal.





After months of relative silence following her plea deal, the former Detroit City Councilwoman let fly a string of excuses and requests Wednesday, asking Cohn to set aside her guilty plea and consider her children and aging husband, U.S. Rep. John Conyers.





"I don't feel I should go to jail for something I didn't do," she told Cohn. "And it's been said that you're going to make an example of me, and the news media is pressuring you to put me to jail, and I just don't feel that's appropriate."





She also vowed an appeal, a promise she made good on later in the day.





The Detroit Free Press reports Conyers filed a notice of appeal Wednesday afternoon and was appointed representation by the Federal Defender's Office.  Her attorney, Steve Fishman, told the newspaper he would not represent her in the appeal.





Her appeal is a long shot however, as the plea deal she signed in June indicates that if she receives a sentence of five years or less she "waives any right to appeal her conviction or sentence."





Conyers resigned from the Detroit City Council in June after admitting she accepted cash from Houston-based Synagro Technologies in exchange for her vote on a sludge-hauling contract with the city in 2007.





"I may be guilty of extortion, but I never took a bribe," she told Cohn.





Barring a successful appeal, Conyers is scheduled to report to prison on July 1.

Watch her debate a grade schooler...