Perez, Dunn to plead guilty in police chief exam-rigging case
BRIDGEPORT — Former Police Chief Armando “A.J.” Perez and Personnel Director David Dunn have agreed to plead guilty, according to court documents, to conspiring to rig the city’s police chief examination so that Perez would win and then lying to feder
al authorities about it.
According to court documents, the two men, who resigned from the city after their arrests last month, are due in U.S. District Court in Bridgeport on Monday morning and expected to waive grand jury indictments and then plead guilty to reduced charges: conspiracy to commit wire fraud and making false statements.
Each charge will carry a maximum prison penalty of five years and a $250,000 fine for each man. They have also agreed to pay restitution of $149,407, the documents state.
Neither man was available for comment Friday afternoon and their lawyers did not return calls and emails for comment.
“It would be premature to comment before the court hearing,” Mayor Joseph Ganim said Friday evening.
There is no indication in the court documents whether as part of the plea deals Perez, 64, and Dunn, 72, have agreed to cooperate with an ongoing grand jury investigation of activities in the city.
On Sept. 10, Perez and Dunn were charged by federal prosecutors with defrauding the city of
Bridgeport on allegations of rigging the 2018 police chief examination and making false statements to federal agents in the course of the investigation.
The federal complaint paints a picture of Perez as desperate to be appointed permanent top cop but frustrated with his inability to fill out the necessary paperwork and answer exam questions. So, allegedly, Dunn assisted Perez by providing him with the test questions in advance and two unnamed police officers helped Perez write his application and test responses.
According to the complaint, on an Oct. 17, 2018, phone call between Dunn and one of the interview panelists, “Dunn stated that the Mayor wanted Perez to be ‘in the top three.’ Panelist-1 understood Dunn to be asking Panelist-1 to score Perez higher and/or to influence other panelists to do the same.”
Ganim had to pick a police chief from the top three qualified candidates. He ultimately awarded the five-year contract to Perez.
Dunn later denied to the FBI that anybody tried to influence the panelists on Perez’s behalf.
The complaint states that Perez, after being told of the allegations against him, spent hours telling FBI agents that it wasn’t true even though they had recordings of him telling officers to get him the prepared answers for the exam.