In its six-page answer to Pelisamen’s motion, Assistant U.S. Attorney Kirk W. Schuler said “the jury did not buy the defendant’s argument, and neither should the court.”
Schuler said Pelisamen failed to prove any of the three elements necessary to establish a Brady violation.
He said a Brady violation requires that the evidence presented be favorable to the accused, that the evidence was willfully suppressed by the government, and that the defendant was prejudiced.
Pelisamen filed a motion on the grounds that a new trial is necessary after a federal government-witness, attorney Tim Bellas, testified how he transferred $1.3 million funds representing the funds in the estate of Rita Kaipat to Pelisamen’s co-defendant Joseph Arriola in Sept. 2005.
The prosecution argued that “perjury by a government witness requires a new trial if there is a reasonable probability that without the evidence, the result of the proceedings would have been different.”
The U.S. government said the jury received the evidence contradicting the alleged perjured statements, and that alleged perjury is of no consequence to the outcome of the case.
Schuler said how the transfer of the $1.3 million was made and whether the defendant knew of it was of no consequence to the U.S. government’s case or the defendant’s guilt.
“The evidence produced by the defendant merely supported the government’s argument that Bellas transferred the $1.3 million to Arriola when Bellas withdrew from the case,” Schuler said.
He said what matters is the second transfer of $1.3 million from the Bank of Guam account into the Bank of Hawaii checking account, along with the $625,775 in checks written against the estate signed by the defendant and made payable to the defendant, his wife and Arriola.
“Bellas transferred the money and accounted for every single penny. The specifics of that transfer are not material, nor were they any secret,” Schuler said.
The federal court has set a hearing for Pelisamen’s motion for a new trial on Sept. 2.
Pelisamen and Arriola were indicted for making over $600,000 in unauthorized withdrawals from the Kaipat estate in 2007.
On May 1, 2009, U.S. District Court for the NMI Chief judge Alex R. Munson declared a mistrial after a 12-member jury and two alternates reached a deadlock and were not able to agree on a verdict.
On July 11, a new set of jurors found Pelisamen guilty of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud, money laundering conspiracy, money laundering in the amount of $10,000, and money laundering in the amount of $10,075.
