Judge John L. Michalski had all of his court cases suddenly reassigned Friday, one day after the FBI raided his home.
All cases assigned to the State Supreme Court judge will be assigned to another judge and “no additional judicial matters will be assigned to Judge Michalski until further notice,” said Norman St. George, deputy chief administrative judge for the state Office of Courts Administration.
The state office sent The Buffalo News a statement announcing the move in response to questions from The News about a search warrant executed at Michalski’s Amherst home Thursday morning by agents from the FBI, Homeland Security, the state Attorney General’s Office and other law enforcement agencies.
People are also reading…
While federal prosecutors and agents declined to discuss the raid, law enforcement officials more than a year ago began investigating Michalski’s relationship with Peter Gerace Jr., a friend and former client of the judge who runs the Pharaoh’s strip club in Cheektowaga.
Gerace faces federal charges of drug trafficking, sex trafficking and bribing a Drug Enforcement Administration agent, which Gerace denies.
One of Michalski’s attorneys, Terrence M. Connors, said Michalski told him late Friday morning that his superiors were assigning all his cases to another judge – Kevin Carter, supervising judge for the state courts in Western New York – and will not assign Michalski any new cases until further notice.
Michalski was "not suspended" from duty, Connors said.
“Today’s communication from the Office of Court Administration was not a disciplinary action nor was there any associated suspension of the judge’s duties," Connors said. "His cases have been temporarily reassigned until further communication from the Deputy Chief Administrative Judge.”
"It is not a suspension," confirmed state courts spokesman Lucian Chalfen.
Connors declined to comment on why state court officials took Michalski's cases away from him, saying, "I'm not going to speculate."
Connors added that he and Anthony J. Lana, another attorney who represents Michalski, met with the judge Thursday after the police raid.
“No charges were filed. Obviously, he was caught off-guard by the raid, nobody expected it,” Lana told The News. “Nobody wants to see something like that happen in their home at 7 a.m. or 7:30 in the morning.”
Lana said he does not know where the federal investigation is heading, which he said is “unnerving” for the judge and his family.
“We have not been told anything by law enforcement about where this investigation is heading,” Lana said. “The judge tells me that he has never broken any laws and I fully believe him.”
A Buffalo FBI spokeswoman, Jennifer Zientowski, confirmed that the agency "conducted court-authorized law enforcement activity" at the Michalski home, but declined to explain what was behind it.
Both Lana and Connors said the judge is in good shape from an emotional perspective and fully prepared to continue his duties as a judge.
Thursday’s raid is the latest in a series of strange developments involving Michalski since early last year.
On Feb. 28, 2021, the judge was injured by a freight train that struck him after he lay down on some railroad tracks in Depew. The judge survived that incident but was off-duty until Jan. 28 of this year, when the state Office of Courts Administration reinstated him to duty.
The train incident – which another judge referred to in a court ruling as “an apparent suicide attempt” – came days after FBI agents told Michalski they wanted to question him about his friendship with Gerace.
Michalski is also under investigation by the state Commission on Judicial Conduct. It is investigating allegations made by Gerace’s ex-wife that Michalski was paid $5,000 to perform Gerace’s wedding ceremony. Judges in New York State are prohibited from accepting more than $100 to perform a wedding.
