New information in a murder case with a Clinton connection offers a picture of a chatty lawyer who may have said too much for his own good.
On Dec. 20 of last year, police arrested Carlos Perez-Olivo, a disbarred lawyer. They charged him will killing his wife, Peggy Hall Perez-Olivo, in Westchester County in November 2006.
Perez-Olivo and his family live three doors down from the home of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and former President Bill Clinton in Chappaqua, N.Y. They’ve been there since the middle of 2006.
On Friday of last week, the indictment against Perez-Olivo was unsealed, making public redacted copies of a series of statements Perez-Olivo gave to police.
Perez-Olivo, 59, an attorney disbarred in 2006 for holding on to money owed to clients, has pleaded not guilty to the charges against him.
However, in his statements, he almost blithely offered up incriminating information, including the fact that he had a long-time affair with another woman.
Peggy Hall Perez-Olivo, 55, was shot on the evening of Nov. 18, 2006, and died two days later.
Her husband told police that she was with him on the way home from New York City when someone forced their car off the road and held them at gunpoint.
Perez-Olivo said that he struggled with his purported assailant and the gun when off several times. It fatally wounded his wife and also wounded him in the stomach.
The gunman, whom Perez-Olivo described as an “Hispanic male of Colombian descent,” allegedly fled after the shooting.
Perez-Olivo told police he believed the attack was meant for him, perhaps ordered by a disgruntled client.
Especially for a lawyer, Perez-Olivo seemed remarkably unguarded in his interviews with police.
Waiving his right to have an attorney present, he told police he had had a 10-year affair with a woman he met in Puerto Rico. On the day of the shootings he sent flowers to her for her birthday, which was two days later, he said.
Describing himself as “less than perfect,” Perez-Olivo told police that he had had other “small” affairs.
Unprompted, he said he “made a hell of a lot more money” than he reported on his taxes.
Denying he had done the things that got him disbarred, he allowed “he had done other things that probably would have led to disbarment.”
He talked about his unsuccessful attempts to collect on his late wife’s life insurance. The companies were holding about $500,000 as long as Perez-Olivo was a possible suspect.
Perez-Olivo seemed to look upon his interviews with police as therapy. Speaking with the officers made him “feel better for a little while,” he said.
He then encouraged the officers to “come around more often.” They did.
Perez-Olivo is charged with one count of second-degree murder and two counts of criminal possession of a weapon. He could face life in prison if convicted.
Arguing against bail, a prosecutor said there was strong circumstantial evidence that Perez-Olivo had committed “a cold-blooded, well-planned execution.”
In 2005, Perez-Olivo gained attention for his seemingly sloppy defense of Elio Cruz, who was convicted of killing his wife’s lover. The lawyer concluded his summation in the trial by saying, “There is a lot of other things that honestly I thought of and I can’t think of it right now.”
In 2000, Perez-Olivo forfeited his license to practice law in Puerto Rico after failing to answer disciplinary charges.
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