Standing in front of the U.S. Courthouse in New Haven are, left to right, attorney Dan Thibodeau, Jim Morotto and Paul Perrotti. They were passing time while waiting for jury deliberations in Perrotti’s trial to conclude.(Marjorie Needham photo)
By MARJORIE NEEDHAM
Thursday, July 23, the jury in the federal trial of Middlebury’s former fire chief, Paul Perrotti, returned guilty verdicts on two of three counts against Perrotti. Monday, July 27, Perrotti and his defense attorney, Martin Minnella, held a press conference to announce plans to ask the judge to throw out the two guilty verdicts and, if that fails, to appeal the verdicts to the Second Appellate Court in New York City.
The jury found Perrotti guilty on counts 2 and 3 in the United States of America versus Paul Perrotti. Members could not agree on guilt or innocence on count 1, so they returned what is called a partial verdict, which the court accepted. When Judge Jeffrey A. Meyer asked Assistant U.S. Attorney Sarah P. Karwan if she would agree to dismiss count 1, she asked him for a few days to consider the matter.
The 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 Meyer set a tentative sentencing date of Oct. 29, 2015.
After the verdict was returned, 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.”
At the Monday press conference, Minnella said he would pursue the Rule 29(a) motion he filed with the court earlier. This motion asks the judge to enter a judgment of acquittal for offenses for which the evidence is insufficient to sustain a conviction. After the jury returned its verdict, Minnella asked the judge to rule on his motion, but Meyer said, “We are not prepared to rule at this time.”
The FBI press release ran under a headline saying Perrotti was convicted of embezzling funds, but in court Karwan agreed he actually was being charged with converting town property for his own personal profit. The press release also said the government believes Perrotti embezzled more than $70,000. Minnella said Monday, “Where have they shown even remotely that he took $70,000? Their evidence showed nothing.”
Minnella said the FBI spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in manpower and all they came up with that was unaccounted for was two doorbells and $90 worth of red glass globes.
The jury in this trial initially failed to agree on any of the counts. When they returned to the courtroom after deliberating Monday, July 20, and half of Wednesday (they did not deliberate Tuesday) and told the judge they could not agree, Meyer told them they needed to spend more time deliberating and reviewing the evidence, and sent them back to the jury room to continue their deliberations. They then returned their partial verdict late Thursday afternoon.
The FBI press release said the maximum term for each of the counts is 10 years in prison, so Perrotti’s maximum could be 20 years behind bars if the judge so chooses.
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