But an attorney for Scott Fappiano argues that the trauma of his criminal justice ordeal has taken a toll on the man – and has asked a judge to keep this in mind when sentencing the wiseguy next week.

Since being exonerated through DNA evidence that cleared him of raping a NYPD officer’s wife, Fappiano has grappled with problems of substance abuse directly linked to his conviction for a crime he didn’t commit, his attorney says.

BRIGITTE STELZER

Scott Fappiano.

“In the years following his release, Mr. Fappiano struggled with alcohol and drugs in a misguided attempt at self-medicating for the severe anxiety and post-traumatic stress from which he was suffering,” his lawyer, Harlan J. Protass, wrote to a federal judge.

Following a DUI arrest in New Jersey in 2010, Fappiano has tried to confront these substance abuse problems and is wrestling to conquer them, his attorney says.

Late last year, the 50-year-old wiseguy checked himself into a long-term residential drug and alcohol treatment facility in Queens and spent six months as an in-patient there. The program proved to be a “success,” Protass said.

Since leaving re-hab, Fappiano has started a new regimen – participating in weekly counseling sessions and attending Alcoholics Anonymous/Narcotics Anonymous meetings “on an almost daily basis,” Protass said.

But Brooklyn federal prosecutors have written to Judge Kiyo Matsumoto to highlight another side of Fappiano’s life.

The feds say that after Fappiano left prison after being cleared, he was quick to resume his association with mobsters.

“He schemed with members and associates of the Colombo family to assault the ex-husband of his current wife, to commit a violent armed robbery, and to distribute marijuana,” Assistant US Attorney Liz Geddes wrote to the judge.