Jury Begins Deliberating in Hartford Mayor Corruption Trial

The jury in Hartford Mayor Eddie Perez's corruption trial heard three hours of closing arguments from the prosecution and the defense. 
 
First up was Prosecutor Mike Gailor who told the jury that they've heard plenty of evidence showing Perez abused his position as Hartford's Mayor.

"He used it so he could get work done on his bathroom."
 
The state alleges the Mayor received $40,000 worth of home renovations from city contractor Carlos Costa for free and in return kept Costa on the lucrative Park Street project despite lengthy delays and quality issues.

Gailor says the evidence shows the Mayor never intended to pay Costa because he never asked Costa about how much it would cost.  And only attempted to pay $20,000 to the contractor two years later when questioned by investigators. Gailor says in the end, Costa benefited when an employee for the Mayor intervened and wrote a letter that kept Costa from being fired by the city's Dept of Public Works.
 
"For his $40,000 investment in the Mayor's bathroom, Mr. Costa made $2.4 million dollars after the letter on May 16, that is a heck of an investment by Mr. Costa."
 
Next up was Defense Attorney Hubert Santos who immediately told the jury the the state has twisted facts to try and prove Perez is guilty of bribery.  He says Costa had no reason to bribe the Mayor because he was a long-time friend.
 
Santos also criticized the state's main witness regarding the attempted larceny by extortion charge: developer, Joseph Citino--says the Mayor told him he had to take care of a former state representative before a land deal could go through.  Santos says Citino is not credible
 
"He's a convicted drug dealer, he's a convicted counterfeiter, he's a convicted firearms violator. Are you going to rely upon the testimony of Joe Citino to convict the Mayor Perez of attempted larceny?" 

Prosecutor Gailor countered in his rebuttal that the Mayor wanted Citino to take care of former state representative Abraham Giles so Giles could help the Mayor win politicial support. And that the city took care of Giles by letting him sublease a city owned parking lot without having a contract to do so.

For WNPR, I'm Lucy Nalpathanchil.