I made sure I was in the courtroom early today because I didn't want to miss a word of the arguments by Perez attorney Hubie Santos for a mistrial. If Tuesday's arguments before the daily recess were any indication, Wednesday morning promised to be great.
As it turns out, I could have slept late on a rainy morning. Before the first witness was called, only a quick statement was uttered by Santos..."we worked it out". Apparently this was a reference to his blustering from the previous day threatening to withdraw as Perez's attorney, potentially forcing a mistrial. This was due to what Santos called a "secret recording"by State's Attorney Inspector Micheal Sullivan.
Now that that was out of the way, bring on the first in the parade of witnesses for the day. The stone dealer, the cabinetmaker, the Home Depot Asset protection person, the City Treasurer and the Mayor's personal secretary.
The stone dealer was nothing earth shattering, precise and to the point. He sold Carlos Costa the "Dark Emperor" granite, it was delivered and paid for. Then the cabinetmaker ( still waiting for the butcher, baker and candlestickmaker, maybe tomorrow) not real damaging, but not real good for Eddie either.
He testified that he, and his company( which has since gone out of business) built the custom vanity for the permit-less bathroom. He detailed the materials and the cost involved which should have been somewhere around $1300.00. He never billed Costa for the vanity because they "bartered" or traded services back and forth. But then about two years after the vanity was installed, Costa called him and said he needed an invoice for $350.oo to show for the vanity. This is about the time Inspector Sullivan began nosing around and Costa needed to fabricate an invoice for Perez.
Could that maybe account for the "fabricating" evidence charge? I guess a jury will have to decide.
And that jury took a noticeable change this afternoon also. One of the jurors had a tendency to "drop" her head down and I had noticed what looked like "cat-naps" on several occasions. Apparently she realized it also, and today sent a note to Judge Dewey that she was having trouble staying awake. She's not the only one though, occasional snoring can be heard from the gallery in the courtroom, but I guess she is one of the people in there that needs to remain awake. She was excused as a juror and a new juror was sworn in.
Also during the afternoons testimony was City Treasurer Kathleen Palm-Devine and Perez's personal secretary Barbara Crockett. Nothing earth shattering here either. Palm-Devine testified that she expedited payments for Costa at the Mayor's request, and that this was not the standard practice. (Maybe if Costa did more renovations he could have gotten Eddie to slip him cash).
Barbara Crockett testified about Costa's access to the Mayor, nothing much there other than he did have access.
Tomorrow is another day, Inspector Sullivan bright and early. I doubt any jurors will be napping once he starts laying it all out.
22 comments:
The more I think about it, the more I think the state should have just cut a deal with Costa before the trial started. His testimony seemed wildly contradictory -- "I did the work during the day, my trucks were visible, I wasn't trying to hide it" ... oh ... but also, "I tried to conceal evidence of the work." Huh?? Every now and then, it's like he suddenly remembers he is on trial for bribery, and if he admits Eddie took a bribe, he admits he's guilty too, so he's all over the map. If his deal was in place, he could have just said, "The work was a bribe and he took it."
Sullivan's testimony will be key.If Sullivan does a good job then I think the odds remain very high against Perez getting a innocent verdict.
"Dark Emperor" granite, how apropos!!!
Based on what Sullivan said so far and the trial overall, I think John Rose should update his resume because his protector Eddie is going to jail soon.
Only snag I see is that bail bondsman possibly refusing to vote guilty.
Can you believe Eddie's excuse for LYING TO THE POLICE is he "didn't want John Rose knowing the truth?" Um, why didn't you ask John to leave the room -- he is the city's lawyer, not yours, he had no business being there for something that was a personal matter regarding your home. And considering Santos had told EVERYONE in creation you had free work done, it wasn't going to come as an surprise to Rose anyhow.
John Rose knew that work wasn't paid for long before that interview with Inspector Sullivan. That's the very reason he was in the room to begin with. It's just more evidence that Rose is Eddie's personal lawyer and does not serve city council or the tax payers of Hartford first.
The fact Eddie is rolling the dice against such horrible odds shows you how entranced his network of corruption has become and how desperately he wants to hold on to that gravy train. The mere fact he refuse to step down while in trial speaks for itself. I'm sure lots of folks working for Hartford are also praying he wins because their jobs depend on it as well.
Eddie is an embarrassment to himself Hartford and our state. He should be ashamed of himself on TV every night but it's apparent he has no shame or remorse. I wasn't a fan of Gov Rowland but at least he admitted he screwed up and took his lumps.
Eddie is leading the Lamont effort here in Hartford and is working closely with his former detractors Ramon Arroya,Mine and Carbone and working closely with them in Fonfara's primary...no wonder these former detractors of the Mayor have been so silent the last few months.
And why is Eddie working so hard for Lamont? Because he is hoping for a pardon from the next governor, that's why, and wants Lamont to owe him.
Mr or Miss Anonymous...Sorry to break this news to you but the Governor has no pardon power in Connecticut.
Over the course of the last feww weeks Mayor Perez was visited in his office by Lamont and lobbied hard.Mayor Perez complained to some folks tht never once has he received a call from Dan Malloy and therefore pledged his "support" to Lamont.Lamont for his part of the bargain agreed to help Perez with funding a "Appeal Defense Fund" and helped put the Mayor back together with Minnie Gonzalez,Ramon Arroyo and Nick Carbone, who were already supporting Lamont for months.Many folks saw the disgusting display of Mayor Perez and Minnie hugging and kissing at the Convention and saw Mayor Perez with his arm around Arroyo and Carbone.
I can flag Lamont as a sneaky worthless politician now too.
I like Malloy and the fact he's avoiding Eddie only makes me like him more.
Maybe Eddie should take out a third mortgage to help finance his appeal. I guess he knows once he's gone Mayor Segarra will actually follow the law and make Hartford stops financing his legal defense.
I stand corrected, Bruce. However, as I understand it, the governor does have the power to grant a reprieve, temporarily staying the execution of a sentence, is that not right? And since Eddie has no intention of resigning even if convicted, a stay would allow him to continue to serve as Mayor. The exception would be an impeachment, so my question is, what would it take to get Perez impeached and is it likely to happen, or will this be something else Calixto and Rjo can block?
Mr or Miss Anonymous...Only A Judge can grant a stay of execution of the sentence after a guilty verdict,while the case is on appeal,which given the extremely high profile of this case,is very unlikely.
The City Charter states that a Mayor can be changed on if the Mayor is "incapacitated". As i understand it,what exactly "incapacitated means is out for legal review with the Council's law firl, Day Pitney.In addition, a special city trial would have to ensue in order to effectuate such a finding and a finding of incapacity would need 7 votes.
So, in other words, he can't be impeached because they will never get seven votes.
Apologies for my legal ignorance. My source was 211ct.org, which states:
Although the Governor has no authority to grant pardons or commutations, he/she may grant a reprieve in all cases except impeachment.
A reprieve is essentially a stay of execution of a sentence, which gives a person convicted of a crime the opportunity to seek a pardon, commutation, or further judicial review. A reprieve is temporary, lasting only from the time the Governor acts, until the end of the next session of the General Assembly.
I highly doubt that Governor rell ( who is known to dislike Mayor Perez) would be interested in granting a repreive to him.Since we now know that Mayor Perez is backing Lamont for Governor,maybe Lamont if he wins will help Mayor Perez in some way.
I would imagine CT has a law that prevents a Mayor (or any politician for that matter) from staying in office while in jail?
Jeff...no one can hold office while in jail.
I figured that was the case but knowing how Corrupticut operates I wasn't 100% sure. Thanks Bruce.
So what we have to hope is that he doesn't, say, use his sick wife to prevail upon Judge Dewey to give him a stay, since he has made it clear he is not resigning even if convicted. Putting him in jail is the only way we'll get rid of him.
That's how I read it also...
I'm not a lawyer, just applying some common sense.
To grant Eddie a stay would be like letting a CEO of a company remain the CEO after he was just convicted for stealing from the company. I don't think any judge would allow that.
I'm not sure if a stay can come with conditions but if it can my guess would be the judge would only grant a stay if Eddie removed himself from office during the appeal process, i.e. resigned.
Jeff...I am a lawer with experience,I dont believe a Judge would grant Mayor Perez a stay in any regard.
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