Defense Attorneys Call First Witness In Perez Trial

Defense attorneys for Hartford Mayor Eddie Perez called their first witness today in the Mayor's corruption trial. Charles Crocini, a city employee who managed school construction projects testified that it was his idea, not the Mayor's, to keep a city contractor on the job despite delays and quality issues with the Park Street project.

Prosecutors allege Perez took free home renovations from contractor Carlos Costa. In return, they say the Mayor kept Costa from being fired from the Park Street project.

Crocini said he was asked by the Mayor to oversee two troubled city projects, Park Street and the Central Library. He says he intervened in the Park Street project when former city engineer, John McGrane sent a letter to Costa's bonding company saying the city wanted to terminate the contract with Costa because of multiple problems.  

Crocini told the court he advised the Mayor that terminating the contract would have been costly for the city, and that's why he sent another letter to Costa's bonding company saying to ignore McGrane's previous letter to terminate.

"My concern was we had a potential lawsuit coming to the city of Hartford from Mr. Costa."

However, Prosecutor Michael Gailor repeatedly asked Crocini to explain why he got involved in this streetscape project when his job was to manage school construction projects.
Gailor also took time to point out discrepancies between Crocini's grand jury testimony and his testimony in open court about how often he met with the mayor about the Park Street project.

Crocini: "The mayor didn't direct me to send the letter, the letter was driven under my own authority."

Gailor: "Did you discuss it with the mayor?"

Crocini: "I discussed the fact that we weren't going to pull the bond."

Gailor: "So you discussed it with the mayor?"

Crocini: "Yes."

Gailor: "So when you said in the grand jury transcript that you didn't discuss it with the mayor, that wasn't accurate."

Crocini also denied the Prosecution's claims that he told city engineer John McGrane that the Mayor wanted to keep Costa on the job because he was a minority businessman and being fired would impact his small company.

For WNPR, I'm Lucy Nalpathanchil.