
When Eddie Perez was arraigned after his first arrest in 2009, Perez's lawyer stated that Perez was ready to go to trial at 2:00PM that afternoon. The phrase "Justice delayed is justice denied"has been thrown out repeatedly by Perez and Santos.
But in the latest saga of Perez's corruption scandal, Perez and his attorney seem determined to drag out the process even longer. Although months have gone by since Perez's last visit to Judge Dewey's courtroom, Attorney Santos has waited until the week before Jury selection and pretrial "housekeeping" was to begin to file more motions that may potentially delay the trial even further.
The motions can be read below. The motions seem to be rather short on substance and Santos is doing what defense lawyers. If the truth won't work in your favor for a defense, you grasp at straws and use every trick you can to hopefully avoid watching your client report to prison.
All four motions are somewhat interesting though. I like the request for a change of venue. The motion claims "a generalized anti-Hartford bias from the towns and cities surrounding Hartford" make it impossible for Perez to receive a fair trial. How can this possibly be with that great "leadership" we keep hearing about from the Mayor's Office? If I recall, under Mayor Mike we still had our problems but Mike Peter's was able to build a sense of good will with our suburban neighbors.
Is Perez now telling us that he has squandered that goodwill in his several years as Mayor and the suburbs don't care for him? But the even larger question is why does he want the Jury selection to take place in Hartford and then move the trial after the jury is selected. I might be missing something, but the witnesses will remain the same no matter where the trial is held. After the jury is selected in Hartford, even if the trial venue is moved the jury will remain the same. So what is the benefit of the request for a change of venue after jury selection?
Could it possibly just be a motion to cloud the issue more and delay further? It would appear that way to me.
The only benefit to Perez though, in addition to delaying the inevitable, is that if Hubie Santos' fees are being paid by the City of Hartford as many people believe, the checkbook remains open and no stunt is too costly.
And yes, you read that right, apparently no bills have been submitted yet by Santos, but the City of Hartford claims that they are "obligated" to pay for Perez's defense.
Perez Motions 3-29-10
