Konstantinos Diamantis, the former state deputy budget director who was convicted of bribery and extortion last year, on Monday declined a plea deal in a second case and opted for a trial.

Diamantis, 69, was to appear before Judge Stefon Underhill at what was scheduled to be a routine change-of-plea hearing to accept a deal. But while Diamantis sat in the courtroom, his attorney Norm Pattis and prosecuting attorneys conferred with the judge in chambers.

They all left the courtroom soon after.

“We will be filing a motion to continue to trial,” Norm Pattis, Diamantis’ attorney, said outside court. “That’s really all I can say.”

Assistant U.S. Attorney David Novick, asked if the case was proceeding to trial, said, “That seems likely.” He did not discuss details of the plea offer.

A trial date will be scheduled after discussions with attorneys, but the original date of April 27 will likely be postponed.

Diamantis is facing bribery and extortion charges for allegedly assisting a Bristol eye doctor avoid a 2020 state audit into her Medicaid and Medicare billing practices by pressuring state Department of Social Service officials in charge of that audit to drop it in exchange for nearly $100,000 in bribes from the eye doctor.

The federal investigations into Diamantis began nearly five years ago with a subpoena seeking school construction records in October 2021.

Some of the highest-ranking members of Gov. Ned Lamont’s administration could be asked to testify in the current case, including former Office of Policy and Management Secretary Melissa McCaw and former Department of Social Services Commissioner Diedre Gifford.

The two other key players in the Medicaid scheme, Bristol eye doctor Helen Zervas and former state Rep. Christopher Ziogas, a long-time associate of Diamantis from Bristol, have already pleaded guilty to paying Diamantis the bribes and were expected to be key witnesses at the upcoming trial. 

Diamantis has already been convicted of 21 counts of bribery, extortion, conspiracy and lying to federal investigators for using his position as head of the state’s Office of School Construction Grants and Review to steer contracts on school projects in exchange for more than $75,000 in bribes.

In that case, federal prosecutors used text messages, bank records and emails to show how Diamantis negotiated payments with the owners of Acranom Masonry.

In exchange for the money, Diamantis used his influence at the state’s school building office to help the masonry company win lucrative construction contracts on several projects in Tolland, Hartford and New Britain.

At times texts showed Diamantis hounding them for his payment and threatening to remove them from school jobs if he wasn’t paid.

“I will wait til Monday for him to give you 40. If not, then I think D’Amato needs a new mason for Tolland then he will see how real the job was,” Diamantis said in one text, referring to the Birch Grove project where Acranom was working on.

The jury found Diamantis guilty after a nine-day trial last October.

Underhill delayed sentencing in that case until the second trial was completed. 

Pattis, Diamantis’ attorney, has previously said his client could face up to 10 years just from the first conviction.

Diamantis is currently free on a $500,000 bond that was kept in place after his conviction even after it was revealed that he had obtained a Greek passport.

When Underhill asked Diamantis about the passport, he told the judge that he had recently obtained dual citizenship in Greece and obtained a Greek passport. But he said he applied for the passport to claim a piece of property in Greece that his father had inherited.

He also told the judge that his passport was sent to Greece to facilitate that property transfer and was not currently in his possession.

“It was a clean sweep. I thought it was going to go my way, but obviously it didn’t,” Diamantis said outside the courtroom after he was convicted. “The jury clearly believed them and not me.”

Zervas and Ziogas have not yet been sentenced, pending their testimony at the second trial.

It was during the height of COVID, in May 2020, when Diamantis and Ziogas hand-delivered a check for nearly $600,000 to DSS in order to reimburse the state Medicaid program for services that Zervas improperly billed.

After that check was delivered to the state Department of Social Services office in Hartford, the audit into Zervas’ optometry practice was dropped, which prevented state auditors from combing through her records and potentially clawing back even more money for the state.

The CT Mirror reported that the audit of Bristol Eye Care was the only one that DSS canceled over a five-year period.

Zervas pleaded guilty in February of 2024 to health care fraud charges and admitted that she conspired with a former state lawmaker and former high-ranking Connecticut employee to pressure officials at the state’s Medicaid agency to cancel an audit that was examining Medicaid overpayments at her optometry practice.

At that time, federal prosecutors would not identify those public officials. But less than three weeks later, Ziogas and Diamantis were both indicted.

Ziogas pleaded guilty to extortion and bribery charges in November before U.S. Magistrate Judge Robert M. Spector. The judge quizzed Ziogas about whether he understood what he was pleading guilty to and then asked Ziogas to describe in his own words what he had done.

“I participated in a scheme with Helen and Kosta to try and have him suppress some activity in Medicaid charges that she was facing,” Ziogas said, adding “we paid him (Kosta) to help influence the outcome of the audit.” 

When asked by the judge what he had specifically done, Ziogas added, “Helen gave me money, and I gave it to Kosta — maybe $100,000.”