Former Waterbury Mayor Philip Giordano, convicted of sexually abusing two young girls, was unsuccessful in his latest effort to get his 37-year federal prison sentence overturned.

U.S. District Judge Stefan Underhill rejected Giordano's motion to vacate, set aside or correct his sentence in a 68-page ruling issued on Dec. 2.

Giordano, 52, who is incarcerated in a federal penitentiary in Tucson, Arizona, had filed a petition with the court in 2011, claiming his trail attorney, Andrew Bowman, rendered constitutionally ineffective assistance at trial, and that the sentence imposed by the court was unconstitutional.