BRIDGEPORT — Former metropolis personnel director David Dunn has filed a federal lawsuit in opposition to the state’s legal professional basic for in search of to cut his pension after Dunn was charged with serving to Armando “A.J” Perez cheat his method into changing into the town’s police chief.
The lawsuit comes 4 months after a Superior Court docket decide dominated Dunn should forfeit greater than $40,000 a 12 months of his pension for his federal conviction for aiding Perez. Dunn on Wednesday requested a U.S. District decide to overrule that call.
“The court docket’s choice by lowering the plaintiff’s vested proper to a full retirement pension by 50 p.c violated the Eight Modification to the US Structure’s prohibition in opposition to extreme fines and merciless and strange punishments,” the lawsuit states.
Dunn’s lawyer within the lawsuit, Thomas Bucci, declined touch upon the go well with.
A 2008 state regulation requires the legal professional basic to sue in search of to revoke or scale back pensions of public workers who’re convicted of crimes associated to their workplace. Perez’s civil trial is scheduled for later this month.
“Dunn abused his place and betrayed the general public belief, and the decide’s choice on this matter was truthful and acceptable. We’ll proceed to defend and implement this statute because the regulation requires,” mentioned Legal professional Normal William Tong.
Dunn, who labored for the town for almost 30 years earlier than his arrest by the FBI in September 2020, was eligible for a yearly pension from the town of $81,969.84.
In 2022, Dunn was sentenced in U.S. District Court to four months and Perez was sentenced to a 12 months and a day after every pleaded responsible to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and making a false assertion to the FBI.
The regulation in search of to revoke a pension has been utilized few instances, together with in 2012 when, former Oxford tax collector Karen Guillet, who was convicted of embezzling greater than $600,000 from the city, had her pension revoked. In 2019, a decide revoked the pension of former Hartford mayor Eddie Perez who was convicted of corruption costs.
In his ruling in October to chop Dunn’s pension, Superior Court docket Choose Charles Reed famous, “The defendant had an unblemished document of service with the town till 2018, when, as appearing personnel director, he conspired inexplicably to rig the process that he was answerable for overseeing. The defendant’s crime was critical, resulting in a felony conviction and was perpetrated from the highest echelon of metropolis authorities.”
Nonetheless, Reed did agree to hear arguments that his ruling had been extreme. Each side are awaiting his last choice.
Dunn’s lawyer within the state case, Barry Knott, declined remark.
Within the meantime, the federal lawsuit states Dunn’s punishment was extreme.
“The 50 p.c discount within the plaintiff’s pension is a considerably bigger forfeiture by over 200 p.c, than another revocation and/or discount imposed in a judicial continuing introduced beneath the provisions of Connecticut Normal Statutes § 1- 110a,” the go well with states. “The Superior Court docket discovered that the plaintiff’s pension offers 78 p.c of his whole revenue and is his principal monetary asset. His six-month function on this affair represents just one.7 p.c of his profession with the town.”
In the course of the trial, beneath questioning by Assistant Legal professional Normal Gregory O’Connell, Dunn admitted supplying Perez with the inquiries to the examination upfront and adapting the scoring for the method to learn Perez. However he mentioned he was unaware that Perez had two different officers take the examination for him.
And he was evasive on whether or not he lied to the FBI about telling one of many panelists scoring the chief choice course of that Mayor Joe Ganim needed Perez to be one of many finalists for the job.
