By MARJORIE NEEDHAM
The jury in the United States of America versus Paul Perrotti on Thursday, July 23, found the former fire chief of the Middlebury Volunteer Fire Department guilty of counts 2 and 3 of three counts against him. The three counts, one for each year for the years 2011 through 2013, charge that Perrotti “did embezzle, steal, obtain by fraud, intentionally misapply and otherwise without authority knowingly convert to his own use property and funds valued at $5,000 or more, which property and funds were owned by and under the care, custody and control of the Town of Middlebury.” Judge Jeffrey A. Meyer set a tentative sentencing date of Oct. 29, 2015.
When the verdict was announced, Terry Perrotti, Paul’s wife, and his daughter Lauren, started sobbing and hugged each other. They soon rushed out of the courtroom.
Paul Perrotti said, “It’s been an uphill battle from the start. I’m fighting the United States of America. I don’t think the jury understood the evidence.”
Defense attorney Martin Minnella said he would file a motion to arrest the judgment. “They (the prosecution) threw a lot of numbers at the jury,” he said. “The judge said they couldn’t use that to convict him. The numbers with Kim (Connors) had nothing to do with his guilt … The prosecution threw out exhibits and never showed they had a connection with his case.” Minnella said the charge was that Perrotti took goods from the town, and the prosecution provided no evidence or testimony to connect him with taking goods from the town.
“They inundated them (the jury) with hundreds of invoices that were not connected to anything. They didn’t provide a scintilla of evidence to connect a criminal act to Mr. Perrotti,” Minnella said. “This is one of the weakest cases I’ve ever seen.”
The jury started deliberating about 8:30 a.m. Thursday, but it wasn’t until 2:59 p.m. that the jury sent a note to the judge. Meyer said the note listed two items, the first was the time they had to end deliberations Thursday. The second said the jury had unanimous agreement on counts 2 and 3 (2012 and 2013) but could not agree on count 1 (2011). It said the majority of jurors felt they had exhausted all the evidence (without reaching agreement on count 1). Meyer said a white, folded jury verdict form accompanied the note, but he did not open and read it but instead returned it to the jury via the court security officer.
Meyer discussed the situation with the attorneys and gave them time to consider his plan to offer to the jury two options: one was to continue deliberations with the hope of reaching a verdict on all counts; the other was, if they thought further deliberations would not be productive, to return a partial verdict on the two counts and then be dismissed.
When the jury filed in to hear Meyer’s advice, it was clear what the verdicts on counts 2 and 3 would be. Every face was grim, and not one juror cast a glance in Perrotti’s direction. The jury departed to make its decision on how to proceed and soon sent a note they would chose a partial verdict and dismissal Thursday over continuing deliberations.
As they filed back in, they again avoided looking at Perrotti, and their faces again were grim. The foreman read the verdicts. The jury was polled with all saying they found the defendant guilty. Then the judge thanked them for their service, told them their duties were over and discharged them.
On Wednesday, this jury informed the court they were unable to reach unanimous agreement on any of the counts. At that time, Meyer refused to let the jury end their deliberations.
