As Hartford voters prepare to pick their next mayor, there's another mayor whose name keeps coming up. Eddie Perez was convicted more than five years ago on corruption-related charges. Now, his case may soon get a hearing at the state's highest court.
Perez resigned his office in 2010 after being convicted in two separate alleged schemes.
In one case, he was charged with bribery and other offenses: he allegedly gave favorable consideration to a city contractor while that contractor was also doing deeply discounted work on the then mayor's house.
In the second case, Perez was charged in a scheme to extort a contractor who wanted to develop city-owned property.
The former mayor's attorneys appealed those convictions, and an appellate court later threw them out and ordered two new trials. The court said that while there was enough evidence to convict Perez, the trial court made a procedural error by combining the two cases together.
That ruling is before the Connecticut Supreme Court. The case is on the docket for the court's second term, which begins October 5, but there's no guarantee it will get called in this term.
Perez was sentenced to three years in prison, but has been free while his appeal makes its way through the courts.
