Hartford Councilwoman Gets Special Form Of Probation

Hartford City Councilwoman Veronica Airey-Wilson was granted a special form of probation today.  She was arrested with former Mayor Eddie Perez last year and charged with faking payment to a city contractor for work done on her home. WNPR’s Jeff Cohen reports.

 

Airey-Wilson has served on the city council for nearly 20 years.  In court, she says she sent a $420 check to contractor Carlos Costa for granite countertops he put in her kitchen pantry. But Costa -- who also did deeply discounted work at Perez's home -- says he never got the check and that the work was worth more like $1,500.  And as for the check that Airey-Wilson used as proof that she paid?  The state says she faked it.

 

It was the job of Judge Julia Dewey to figure out whether to grant Airey-Wilson's request for a special probation called accelerated rehabilitation.  To do that,  she had to ask two questions.

 

Dewey: In all of this, what is your biggest regret?  I need to know.

 

Airey-Wilson: My biggest regret is that I guess I'm so open and trusting of everyone and in my choice of selecting someone to do the work in my home.

 

Dewey: From your perspective, what was the worst that happened because of this incident?

 

Airey-Wilson: The humiliation and shame. 

 

It was that acknowledgment of the loss of public face -- both for Airey-Wilson and for her community -- that got Dewey's attention.

 

Dewey: You got it. You understood what the problem was.  That the public viewed its servants in a less-than-kind light, and that's unacceptable. So it was almost like the 20 years you did could have been down the drain for one stupid granite countertop.

 

Dewey gave Airey-Wilson three months of probation and ordered her to pay $420 to the state's victim restitution fund.  The state did not oppose the probation.

 

For WNPR, I'm Jeff Cohen.