This must take the trophy this weekExcerpt:
Perez's attorney, Hubert Santos, had said that pushing the city to pay its bills is not a crime.
He said Perez always planned to pay for the home renovations but was distracted when his wife had medical problems beginning in 2005.
Perez was arrested again in September, when state authorities charged him and former state Rep. Abraham Giles of Hartford with trying to extort a $100,000 payment to Giles from a developer who wanted to buy city-owned property.
Giles had been leasing a parking lot on the property from the city for $500 a month and subleased it to a parking company for $2,250 a month, according to an affidavit. The mayor arranged for Citino to pay Giles $100,000 as part of the sale, but the deal never went through, prosecutors said.
Two of Perez's staff members said during the trial that Perez, a graduate of Trinity College, has significant reading problems, which one staff member described as dyslexia.
His attorneys suggested those reading difficulties may have kept Perez from seeing a developer's e-mail that discussed the alleged Giles payoff.----
Is it just me or are the defense lawyers who come up with such 'explanations' ought to be charged with attempting to pervert the course of justice?
If such arguments are presented in criminal trials, one ought not be shocked at the shenanigans going on in Family Courts...
