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.