Judge Revokes Half Of Dunn’s Pension For Conspiracy To Rig 2018 Police Chief Test – Only In Bridgeport®

David Dunn, the city’s former personnel director who helped ex Police Chief Armando Perez rig the top cop test in 2018 has had his pension reduced by 50 percent by a state judge for his transgressions in the scheme.

The state Attorney General’s Office that brought the action against Dunn sought a harsher penalty.

Superior Court Judge Charles Reed halved the $82,000 a year pension based on Dunn’s municipal service that covered several mayors, dropping the gain to approximately $3,420 from $6,841. See Reed ruling here

Excerpt from Reed’s ruling:

In September 2020 Dunn and Perez were charged with wire fraud and providing false statements to federal law enforcement officials. Both entered guilty pleas and were sentenced to federal time by U.S. District Judge Kari Dooley. Dunn received four months.

When Dunn, 74, surrendered to the prison facility in Schuylkill, Pennsylvania he was expecting assignment to the federal camp reserved largely for first-time, non-violent offenders. Instead, he spent 42 days in solitary confinement due to the prison’s Covid protocol policy, allowed to leave his windowless cell only 15 minutes per day.

In 2018 Mayor Joe Ganim announced a national search for chief of police after appointing his long-time friend Perez in an acting capacity in 2016 shortly after his return to the mayoralty.

Federal officials charged that Perez and Dunn had conspired to rig the test utilizing help from police underlings to receive an unfair advantage over other police chief candidates. Dunn provided Perez the test questions in advance, allowing Perez to finish among three finalists for a mayoral appointment.

The case was split open just days after Captain Mark Straubel was placed on administrative leave in the summer of 2018 for racist texts against the department’s highest-ranking African American officer Captain Roderick Porter. Perez visited Straubel at his house to seek additional assistance with the exam to select a permanent chief, an appeal recorded by Straubel who shared the conversation with federal authorities.

For additional background see here