Opinion ID: 763105
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Entitlement Defense

Text: 29 At the evidentiary hearing, the government attempted to show that Pelullo's entire defense--to each of the three discrete schemes that underlay the various counts--was a defense of entitlement; that is, Pelullo's response to the government's accusation that he had embezzled money was that he was entitled to the money. If the government succeeded in showing that Pelullo needed to testify about each scheme in order to proffer his entitlement defense, then it would be clear that the Brady information was neither especially useful to Pelullo nor relevant to his decision to testify. The District Court, adopting the government's theory, placed great weight on this factor. Specifically, it stated: 30 I find that the government has established by clear and convincing evidence that Mr. Pelullo waived his fifth amendment privilege and voluntarily agreed to testify at the first trial so that Mr. Pelullo could present a defense to the jury by explaining that he was entitled to use the Royale corporate funds in the manner that he did, and therefore, he did not commit fraud as charged in the indictment. I further find that the Brady material does not and cannot establish or even support the 'entitlement' defense Mr. Pelullo sought to establish through his direct testimony. 31 6 F.Supp.2d at 412; see also id. at 421. 32 In response, Pelullo points to trials three and four. If it really were necessary for him personally to take the stand to present his entitlement defense, Pelullo argues, then he would have had to testify in the third and fourth trials. Noting that the government's case on Counts 1-53 did not materially change throughout the four trials, Pelullo submits that his silence in the third and fourth trials shows that he had no need to take the stand in his own defense once he had the Brady material. 33 While this is a compelling argument, we cannot hold that it was clearly erroneous for the District Court to give weight to Pelullo's defense strategy in his first two trials. The reason Pelullo did not testify in the third trial was most likely a combination of factors: his testimony in the first and second trials had not convinced the jury; his attorney felt that Pelullo could set forth his entitlement defense well enough using just his father's (and others') testimony; and the Brady material gave extra support to his defense. That is, it is highly probable that Pelullo learned certain things about his case as the first two trials played out, and that some of that knowledge played a role in his decision not to testify at the third trial. While the District Court did not make specific findings about Pelullo's defense strategy at his third trial, we cannot conclude that it was clearly erroneous to give weight to Pelullo's strategy in the first trial, even though that strategy had obviously changed slightly by the third trial.