Hartford's Mayor Eddie A. Perez entered court today for the start of the jury selection phase of his trial facing 5 counts related to corruption. He left court today facing additional charges adding up to 8 counts related to corruption, including larceny, extortion , bribery and now coercion. The "Substitute Information" documents submitted by the State's Attorney's office are below.
Perez Substitute Information 4-12-10
I'll post more tonight after the council meeting
17 comments:
That substitute information is very damning...it also means that someone has rolled over on Eddie and that their plea talks have broken down...get ready for a very interesting trial.
I predict...
Eddie wants to wrap up jury selection pretty fast so he can be freed up to focus on making his resignation deals with Hartford.
Day one of the trial Santos will declare Eddie made a deal with prosecutors because he feels the jury was not a fair representation for Hartford and minorities. You can see Santos is already prepping the public for the idea of a "bad jury" from his comments today.
Bruce, I thought the same thing, that Joseph Citino or someone close to him rolled on Eddie.
I hope Eddie's arrogance gets him 5+ years in jail. Too stupid to know when he's beat.
I think he's going to look great in that orange jump suit. Maybe he can run the City from Suffield prison, it's not that far away.
Jeff -- I thought Citino already had rolled? The cellphone warrant seemed to have a lot of info from him.
I just read the cell phone warrant again. Yes it looks like Citino might have already been working with the state.
I'm not sure why the state held back on those 3 new charges. Maybe their play was to have them as another round of public arrests but changed their minds because Santos would have used them as yet another excuse to delay the trial, (Eddie is vested for his pension late next year), so opted to just slip them in once a trial date was set.
Kevin and/or Bruce: Is there anything in the city charter or state statutes that would preclude Eddie from collecting a city pension if he is convicted and/or rescinding it if he is convicted after he starts collecting it???
Dear Anon...I dont think Eddie qualifies for a pension if he pleads guilty soon or is found guilty in May..The statutes and Charter are clear in that if Eddie pleads guilty and is found guilty at trial, the person responsible for his legal bills is himself.If the City has paid his legal bills and there is a plea deal or a guilty verdict,the City must be re-imbursed for all payments to his lawyer and his pension(if he qualifies for one) can be attached by the City to effectuate re-imbursement of payments for his defense.
Rumor has it that the new charges popped up when the plea deal talks broke down.
Interesting about the plea deal breaking down.
To answer the question on his pension. When Governor Rowland was convicted he was still entitled to his pension because at that time no laws were in place to prevent it. Politicians and the public was upset so laws were made that can deny a pension of a public official if they are found guilty (or plea to guilty). The caveat is the public official has to be found guilty before they are collecting a pension, not after. This is why you see cops resign a lot when charges are brought up against them. It locks in their pension before a verdict is reached. Eddie can't resign with a pension now because in Hartford you become vested after 10 years of service. Eddie is short by about one year. This is why I believe Santos was trying to stall the trial.
In reply to Jeff's comment re vesting, union members are vested at 5 years; it used to be 10 years, but changed some time ago. The mayor is an elected official, not sure when vesting kicks in for non-union. P.S. Jeff, are you Jeff Cohen??? If so, really miss reading your stuff @ Courant.com. You were well on your way to a journalism award. Haven't checked you out yet in your new gig.
I'm not Jeff Cohen but I'm sure he reads this blog and will appreciate your words.
I have an up to date union contract in front of me and it says 10 years. If one of the unions managed to get 5 years please let me know. (teacher's union maybe?)
Eddie is 10 years, and was first elected in November 2001 making him eligible in November of next year.
I'm sure he's begging city council to vote letting him have it early but he's made too many enemies there.
What you put into this world is what you get back from it!
Because CT didn't have the backbone to do the right thing, this is the federal charge that ultimately took down Governor Rowland.
http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/html/uscode18/usc_sec_18_00001341----000-.html
My sources tell me the Feds are on stand by if Eddie miraculously squirms out of this.
To Jeff: Re vesting: Per the Agreement between the City and the Hartford Municipal Employees Association (HMEA), Section 3.5.1.a(Vesting), "effective September 10, 2003 and in accordnce with Section 2A-28(d) of the Municipal Code, a bagaining unit member's rights to and/or interests in any normal or early retirement allowance shall vest upon completion of five (5) years of continuous City service, regardless of age." So, check out the Muni code. Remember how Finance Director Tom Morrison "retired" last year with only five years of service soon after he testified before the grand jury???? Directors are non-union. Also note that the pension benefit is calculated on a particular % of earnings AND years of service as articulated in one's respective bargaining unit agreement ( or in the muni code if one is non-union; so in the case of Morrison, had he not "retired" with so few years of service, he would have been eligible for a much larger pension.
Interesting. Not sure why this current union contract says 10 years. I'm defiantly investigating this issue. Thanks.
Re Jeff's 4/17 posting. Which contract are you looking at? The city has quite a few unions and has a different contract with each of them. You may be looking at the AFSME Local 1716 contract which is actually part of the state retirement system, not the city's Municipal Employee Retirement Fund (MERF). These particular city workers are lower echelon clerks, laborers in DPW, etc. If you want to see really lucrative contracts, check out Police and Fire.
Current Police Union Contract, page 9 number 3
3. Normal Retirement shall be after twenty (20)years of continuous service. Employee pension benefits shall be vested after ten (10) years of continuous service.
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