Court rules Bridgeport police chief challenge can proceed

HARTFORD – The lawsuit of a former Bridgeport assistant police chief, who claims he was defrauded of the police chief ’s job, will be allowed to go forward, the state Appellate Court ruled Friday.

The appeals court ruled that the fact that the city paid James Nardozzi to settle a previous lawsuit does not prevent his current one.

“The actions asserted have nothing to do with the judicial proceedings of the first lawsuit,” the appeals court ruled, stating that the facts in the two lawsuits are sufficiently different.

“The Appellate Court’s decision is correct,” said Nardozzi’s lawyer, Eric Brown. “We will now move forward to hold all responsible parties accountable, starting at the very top of city government.”

Hartford lawyer James Healy, who represented the city in the appeal, did not return calls and emails for comment.

The case is tentatively scheduled for trial in December.

In his lawsuit, Nardozzi claims Mayor Joe Ganim conspired with Armando Perez and former Bridgeport personnel director David Dunn to fix the selection process so that Perez would be selected as chief.

In April 2021, Perez was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Kari Dooley to a yearand-a-day in prison after he and Dunn, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and making a false statement to the FBI.

Dunn was released after serving four months in prison. Perez was released in January.

Perez and Dunn were accused of participating in a nine-month conspiracy to deceive the city by secretly rigging the purportedly open and competitive selection process for a permanent Bridgeport police chief.

In 2020, the Bridgeport City Council approved a $180,000 settlement — plus legal fees — for Nardozzi, who was fired by Ganim after the mayor took office in 2016. Nardozzi, who was hired in 2012 by then-Mayor Bill Finch following a national search, sued the city claiming he was wrongfully fired.

In October 2020, Nardozzi sued the city, Perez and Dunn claiming he was a victim of their conspiracy to rig the examination process for police chief in 2018. He claims that while his first lawsuit was pending, he had discussions with Ganim about coming back to manage the police department; in 2018 he applied to become police chief.

He claims he was removed from contention for police chief as a result of cheating by Perez and Dunn.

The lawyers for the city, Perez and Dunn have claimed that the release signed by Nardozzi when he accepted the settlement in his first lawsuit precludes him from suing them now. A Superior Court judge disagreed and the city filed an appeal.