Did you know Hartford mayor turned hhimself in for bribery?

HARTFORD, Conn. — Hartford's mayor turned himself in Tuesday on charges of having a city contractor do $40,000 in work at his home and paying for it only after being confronted by investigators.
Eddie A. Perez, a native of Puerto Rico and the first Hispanic mayor in the city's history, admitted "a lapse in judgment" but said he did not commit a crime. He pledged to remain in office.
"There is no excuse for it," Perez told The Hartford Courant. "I apologize for putting my family and my city under this situation."
Perez, the Democratic mayor of Connecticut's capital city since 2001, was charged with receiving a bribe and falsifying evidence.
The contractor, Carlos Costa, told investigators he believed he would be shut out of lucrative city contracts had he not done the work for free, prosecutors said Tuesday.
Costa, who was awarded a $5 million city streetscape contract, did the kitchen and bathroom renovations at Perez's home in 2005. Perez paid $20,000 for the work in 2007, but only after being questioned by a grand jury probing possible corruption in city government, prosecutors said. Neither Costa nor Perez obtained building permits for the work, prosecutors said.

According to warrants in the case, investigators found "numerous instances" where Perez intervened in matters to help Costa.
Costa was charged Monday with two counts of bribery, fabricating evidence and conspiracy to fabricate evidence in connection to the case.
Perez is charged with receiving a bribe, fabricating physical evidence and conspiracy to fabricate evidence. The felonies can bring a maximum sentence of five to 10 years in prison if convicted.
Perez did not return a phone message left by The Associated Press, but scheduled a 1 p.m. news conference to discuss the charges.
Perez grew up on Hartford's gritty North end and street gang leader before turning away from gang life in the 1970s and forming a neighborhood civic group.
Though technically powerless in the city's weak-mayor form of government, Perez upended Hartford politics by aligning himself with a Republican and a Green Party member to seize control of the City Council. In 2002, voters approved a charter change that shifted the power from the council to the mayor's office and made Perez the most powerful mayor in Hartford history. In 2005 he also took over the city's school system.
Another city hall employee, Edward Lazu, was charged with one count of receiving a bribe, fabricating evidence and three counts of forgery. more