United States v. Brennan

CourtCourt of Appeals for the First Circuit
DecidedJune 3, 1993
Docket92-1169
StatusPublished

This text of United States v. Brennan (United States v. Brennan) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the First Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Brennan, (1st Cir. 1993).

Opinion

USCA1 Opinion


United States Court of Appeals
United States Court of Appeals
For the First Circuit
For the First Circuit
____________________

No. 92-1169

UNITED STATES,
Appellee,

v.

JAMES F. BRENNAN,
Defendant, Appellant.
____________________

No. 92-1170

UNITED STATES,
Appellee,

v.

J. EDWARD MCHUGH,
Defendant, Appellant.
____________________

APPEALS FROM THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

FOR THE DISTRICT OF MASSACHUSETTS

[Hon. Mark L. Wolf, U.S. District Judge]
___________________
____________________
Before

Torruella, Cyr, and Stahl,
Circuit Judges.
______________
____________________

Philip X. Murray with whom Lorusso & Loud was on brief for
__________________ ________________
appellant Brennan.
Wade M. Welch for appellant McHugh.
_____________
S. Theodore Merritt, Assistant United States Attorney, with whom
___________________
A. John Pappalardo, United States Attorney, was on brief for appellee.
__________________
____________________

June 3, 1993
____________________

STAHL, Circuit Judge. On September 18, 1990, a
_____________

federal grand jury returned a multiple count indictment

against defendant-appellant J. Edward McHugh, a former senior

vice-president and loan officer of the Cambridgeport Savings

Bank ("CSB"), and defendant-appellant James F. Brennan, a

borrower of large sums of money from CSB. The indictment

charged both defendants with one count of conspiracy to

commit bank fraud and to willfully misapply bank funds;

McHugh with one count of bank fraud, six counts of willful

misapplication of bank funds, and four counts of making false

entries in bank records; and Brennan with two counts of

making false statements to a lending institution, one count

of aiding and abetting McHugh's bank fraud, and six counts of

aiding and abetting McHugh's willful misapplication of bank

funds. After a twenty-day trial, a jury returned verdicts of

guilty against both defendants on most of the counts. It

did, however, acquit McHugh on two counts of willful

misapplication and Brennan on one count of aiding and

abetting a willful misapplication of bank funds.

Following the verdict, the trial judge issued a

comprehensive, twenty-seven page memorandum and order denying

Brennan's pending motion for acquittal on all counts charged,

but granting McHugh's pending motion for acquittal insofar as

it related to the four counts for making false entries in

-2-
2

bank records.1 After a two-day sentencing hearing, Brennan

was sentenced to forty-one months in prison and McHugh was

sentenced to a year and a day in prison.

On appeal, McHugh and Brennan raise a host of

challenges to the trial proceedings. Their complaints can be

loosely divided into two categories: (1) there was

insufficient evidence to support certain of their

convictions, and (2) a number of decisions of the trial judge

regarding the parameters of the trial, the admissibility of

certain disputed evidence, and the jury instructions

constituted reversible error. Brennan also advances

miscellaneous arguments that he was victimized by

constitutionally infirm legal representation at trial and

that his sentence was unlawful. After carefully reviewing

the voluminous record in the light of appellants'

contentions, we affirm.

I.
I.
__

BACKGROUND2
BACKGROUND2
__________

Because attempting to recount the evidence in this

case would be both unnecessary and inherently Sisyphean, we

____________________

1. McHugh's motion, which sought acquittal on all counts
charged, was otherwise denied.

2. As is always the case when we consider whether there was
sufficient evidence to support a conviction, we review the
evidence in the light most favorable to the government and
resolve all credibility issues in favor of the verdict. See,
___
e.g., United States v. Guzman-Rivera, No. 92-1855, slip op.
____ ______________ _____________
at 6 (1st Cir. April 9, 1993).

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3

cut to the heart of the matter. McHugh was hired by CSB on

May 24, 1987, as a senior vice-president and senior loan

officer in charge of commercial lending. At the time of

McHugh's hiring, CSB had a relatively small commercial

lending department. Among other things, McHugh was charged

with increasing the volume of commercial loans. To that end,

CSB's Board of Investment ("the Board") provided McHugh with

a personal lending authority of up to $500,000 per borrower.

Commercial loans in excess of $500,000 to any single borrower

could not, however, be made without prior Board approval.

On June 5, 1987, Brennan met with McHugh and

requested a $70,000 unsecured loan from CSB.3 In connection

with the requested loan, Brennan provided CSB with a signed

Personal Financial Statement ("PFS"). The PFS contained a

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