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Dec 25, 2007 10:13 am US/Eastern
Perez-Olivo: 'No Reason' To Harm My Wife
Pleads Not Guilty In Wife Shooting
WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. (AP) ―
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Carlos Perez-Olivo, a man whose wife was shot and killed in their car, apparently by a gunman who ran them off a Westchester County, N.Y., road, tried to become physical with a television reporter who asked if he was actually the one who murdered his wife.
CBS
A disbarred lawyer jailed on charges of murdering his wife says he has been scapegoated in the headline-making crime that he insists he did not commit, a newspaper reported Tuesday.
"I am outraged, I am hurt. I feel I've been abused for publicity's sake," an emotional Carlos Perez-Olivo told The Journal News for a story published Tuesday.
Telephones rang unanswered early Tuesday, Christmas Day, at the Westchester County District Attorney's office.
Perez-Olivo, who lives three doors away from Bill and Hillary Rodham Clinton in Chappaqua, was arrested Thursday in what a prosecutor called a chilling "execution" of his wife, Peggy.
Perez-Olivo also was shot, in the abdomen, in the Nov. 18 incident.
He says they were attacked by a stranger who forced their sport utility vehicle off the road in suburban Westchester County. He has suggested a disgruntled client orchestrated the assault.
Prosecutors say he shot his wife in the head after pulling over on the dark road. They have declined to disclose a possible motive.
Perez-Olivo has tried to collect on his 55-year-old wife's life insurance policy, but insurers held back because he was under suspicion.
He told the newspaper in an interview Monday at the Westchester County jail that he did not know the policy was worth more than $800,000 until after his wife's death, and that the amount was "not much money" to him.
"She was worth more to me than anything in the world," said Perez-Olivo, 59, a father of three. "There's no reason for me to ever harm her."
He is being held on $1 million bail, which he said he was unable to post. He broke into tears when asked about spending Christmas in jail, the newspaper said.
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