Waterbury City Hall. Photo by WTIC's Matt Dwyer.

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) _ Federal prosecutors are preparing a lengthy response to former Waterbury Mayor Philip Giordano’s latest appeal of his convictions for child sexual abuse.

Prosecutors are expected to file their response next Monday in New Haven federal court.

Giordano is trying to get the convictions and his 37-year prison sentence overturned.

Giordano claims in a new appeal filed in January that his lawyer, Andrew Bowman, failed to adequately challenge prosecution evidence and failed to raise numerous issues during his first appeal, which the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear last year.

He also claims the trial judge improperly refused to allow the defense to question the two victims.

Giordano was convicted of molesting the pre-teen girls when he was mayor in 2000 and 2001.

Prosecutor Peter Jongbloed declined to comment Monday.