Bongiovanni changes his mind, will stick with his legal team

A month after citing an irreparable breakdown in his relationship with his trial lawyers, Bongiovanni on Friday told U.S. District Judge Lawrence Vilardo he has withdrawn his request to replace attorneys Robert Singer and Parker MacKay.

Singer and MacKay represented the former Drug Enforcement Administration special agent in two trials this year. At the first trial, a jury deadlocked on most of the counts, but convicted Bongiovanni of two charges over a DEA case file kept in his home after his retirement. In the two-month retrial that concluded in October, he was found guilty on seven of the 11 counts he faced in U.S. District Court.

Jurors convicted him on four counts related to the Ronald Serio and Michael Masecchia marijuana trafficking organization: conspiracy to defraud the U.S; conspiracy to distribute controlled substances; and two counts of obstruction of justice. Bongiovanni’s three other convictions were related to Pharaoh’s Gentlemen’s Club owner Peter Gerace Jr. – two counts of obstruction of justice and one count of false statement to a U.S. agency – for internal DEA memos he wrote and for what he told investigators about his past contact with the Cheektowaga strip club owner.

Twelve days after the convictions in the retrial, Bongiovanni asked for new lawyers to represent him. The request surprised Vilardo, who remarked that “the lawyering in this case was superb on both sides.”

At an October hearing after Bongiovanni’s request, Singer said “it’s too late to save the relationship, at this point.”

Singer said interference from John J. Gilsenan, a Rochester lawyer who had helped the legal defense team during the two trials, fractured the relationship between Bongiovanni and his two defense lawyers.

Vilardo appointed another lawyer to meet with Bongiovanni to discuss the issues that led to his request for another lawyer.

Following that meeting, Bongiovanni rescinded his request.

At a court proceeding Friday, Bongiovanni told Vilardo that he was comfortable with continuing to be represented by MacKay and Singer and that his issues with them were resolved.

The legal work that remains in Bongiovanni’s case includes motions to the district judge to set aside his felony convictions, and if those fail, to review and comment on a presentence report prepared by probation officials, to prepare a sentencing recommendation to the judge, and to appeal the guilty verdicts to an appellate court.

Singer and MacKay were appointed by the court on May 17, 2023, to represent Bongiovanni and have been compensated by the government after Bongiovanni was financially unable to retain counsel when his initial retained lawyers left the case.

Bongiovanni also asked to withdraw a sealed motion, which had not been mentioned in open court before Friday’s court proceeding. Bongiovanni’s lawyers asked for the document to remain sealed over the government’s objection.

“I don’t feel it’s necessary to air the dirty laundry any more than it has been,” Singer told Vilardo, when asked why it should remain sealed.

Vilardo gave the defense lawyers time to submit a redacted version of the motion, and then the judge will decide whether to keep it sealed, unseal it entirely or allow a redacted version to be made public.