BRIDGEPORT, Conn. — Former Bridgeport Chief of Police Armando Perez was sentenced Monday to 12 months and one day in prison for participating in a scheme to defraud the City by rigging the 2018 police chief examination in order to ensure he would be selected for the position.
He was also charged with making false statements to federal agents in the course of the investigation.
Perez previously pled guilty in Bridgeport federal court on October 5, 2020. In March, Perez filed court documents saying that he has taken full responsibility, is now suffering financial hardship, and is susceptible to serious COVID-19 complications.
Officials for the city said only, “The city has no comment - except to say that this has been a difficult time.”
Perez had asked for home confinement, probation, and to pay nearly $300,000 in restitution.
“Former Chief Perez schemed to rig the search for a permanent police chief to ensure the position was awarded to him, and then he repeatedly lied to federal agents in order to conceal his conduct," said U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss. "Today’s sentence sends a strong message that public officials will be held accountable when they corruptly put their own self-interest above their duties to faithfully serve their citizens.”
Perez and the city’s former acting personnel director, David Dunn, had faced up to two years in prison under plea deals approved in October by a federal judge in Bridgeport.
They had also agreed to pay more than $149,000 each in restitution to the city.
Investigators said Dunn gave confidential information about the police chief's examination to Perez and tailored the scoring criteria in favor of Perez.
Perez and Dunn resigned in September 2020 after being accused of rigging the process that led to the city hiring Perez as chief in 2018.
When Perez was arrested by the FBI, he resigned.
According to investigators, Perez was voluntarily interviewed in connection with the FBI’s investigation into the fraud.
During those interviews, he was accused of lying to FBI agents about facts material to the criminal investigation. Investigators said he provided false and misleading information about the assistance Dunn and others had provided him in connection with the examination process, including his requests to a Bridgeport police officer to sneak into headquarters to retrieve stolen confidential information provided by Dunn.
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