Judge panel to hear ex-mayor's appeal

HARTFORD, Conn. (WTNH) -- Former Hartford Mayor Eddie Perez's appeal of his bribery and corruption conviction finally comes up before a three judge panel Tuesday.

Perez was convicted in June of 2010 and resigned from office, and is yet to serve a day of his three-year sentence.

Perez has been out on appeal for nearly three years. He was found guilty on five out of six charges involving bribery and attempted extortion. 

"The state's back in the business of prosecuting corruption cases," said Kevin Kane, Chief State's Attorney.
        
It was a major victory for the Chief State's Attorney's office because all of the most recent Connecticut political corruption cases had been done by federal prosecutors.

"It was a long hard investigation, a long hard trial," Kane said. "It was good team work, everyone worked very hard on it."

"We find the defendant guilty," the jury foreperson read.

As each verdict was announced Perez showed very little emotion, his wife Maria could be heard sobbing in the background.
       
The bribery involved the new bathroom and kitchen in the Perez home that was done by city contractor Carlos Costa, who testified on the stand that he didn't expect to get paid, that he did it for access to the Mayor and to keep the Public Works Department from firing him from the $5.3 million Park Street renewal project because of poor workmanship.

The extortion involved the attempt to get a developer to pay North End political power broker Abe Giles, $100,000 to vacate a city parking lot. Giles has since died.

"I'm maintaining my innocence and we plan to appeal," Perez said.

Part of the Perez appeal is that the two cases should have been tried separately. His attorney, Hubie Santos, laid the ground work for the appeal all through the trial.
    
If he loses on appeal, Perez faces the three-year prison sentence.