HARTFORD —The Connecticut Supreme Court listened to arguments on Tuesday in the case of former Hartford Mayor Eddie Perez, whose corruption convictions were overturned by an appeals court.
State prosecutors are appealing a 2013 Appellate Court ruling, which said the charges against Perez were improperly combined into one case, though there was enough evidence to sustain Perez’s convictions.
Perez’s attorneys argued that his two cases — one on bribery charges and another on extortion charges — should not have been together in one trial, and as a result the jury was unfairly prejudiced against Perez. Evidence from both cases was shown to the jury during the course of a single trial.
The Supreme Court decided to take on the case in February 2014.
Perez was mayor from 2001 to 2010, when he was convicted of accepting a contractor’s bribe for home improvements and trying to extort $100,000 from a developer. He was sentenced to three years in prison, but has remained free on bail during the appeal process.
Prosecutors say the Appellate Court wrongly concluded that holding one trial violated Perez’s right to testify in one case, and it remains silent in the other. Senior Assistant State’s Attorney Harry Weller argued that the original conviction should be reinstated and that the jury was not confused in the 2010 case.
“You don’t look backwards,” Weller said to the judges. “It’s clear the jury wasn’t the least bit confused by the evidence presented.”
Hubert Santos, who represents Mr. Perez, argued that the Appellate Court did its job and that the former mayor should not have had his cases combined for one jury to rule on.
After his arguments inside state Supreme Court, Mr. Santos spoke to reporters outside and said, “Our hope is that the court will rule in our favor, it was a very spirited argument and the justices asked very pointed questions so all we can do now is wait and hope.”
Perez emerged from the courthouse with Santos but remained silent as he walked to his car.
