Federal prosecutors will be allowed to use nearly 460,000 documents taken from the cellphone of Peter Gerace Jr. as evidence in the trial of the Pharaoh’s strip club owner.
U.S. District Judge Lawrence Vilardo turned down a defense attorney’s motion to suppress all evidence taken from the cellphone. The defense argued that federal agents illegally seized, analyzed and took information from cellphones owned by Gerace; John Ermin, an international leader of the Outlaws biker organization who manages Pharaoh’s; and two other individuals.
A former Pharaoh's Gentlemen's Club employee faces three counts of witness tampering over accusations she assaulted a witness in a sex- and drug-trafficking investigation targeting Peter Gerace Jr., owner of the Cheektowaga strip club.
In a recent ruling obtained Friday by The Buffalo News, Vilardo said he is not going to “second guess” rulings made earlier by two other judges – District Judge John Sinatra and Magistrate Judge Michael Roemer – on the same issue.
In a sworn statement by Gerace filed with the court, the strip club owner detailed the amount of evidence taken from the phone and implored the judge to stop prosecutors from using it.
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Much of the information taken from the phone was personal and had nothing to do with the Pharaoh’s case, Gerace said.
His former attorney, Steven M. Cohen, argued that federal agents violated Gerace’s constitutional rights to privacy by seizing phones from Gerace, Ermin and Jessica Leyland, a close friend and confidante who formerly worked for Gerace.
“The advanced forensic search of my phone turned up 458,673 documents, including 118,607 text messages and thousands of personal photographs,” Gerace said in the sworn statement. “My phone also had my usernames for bank accounts and vendor accounts.”
Gerace added: “My phone was kept from me for two weeks. It is difficult to describe the extent to which my day-to-day existence has come to depend on my phone.”
Prosecutors will not be free to say Mafia or La Cosa Nostra – or even soldier and connected – whenever they please, although U.S. District Judge Lawrence Vilardo did not impose a complete ban on those words.
He said information on medical appointments and other personal matters were kept on the phone.
Gerace is charged with drug-trafficking and human-trafficking at his Cheektowaga strip club. He denies those allegations and also denies allegations that he paid bribes to Joseph Bongiovanni, a former federal drug agent.
Bongiovanni, whose phone was also seized, denies receiving bribes from Gerace or helping to enable him to run his alleged drug business.
The case is scheduled to go to trial on Jan. 8, but Vilardo said that trial date could be delayed because of an effort by the U.S. Attorney’s office to block defense attorney Eric Soehnlein from representing Gerace.
Prosecutor Joseph Tripi this week filed a document asking that Soehnlein be removed from the case. The documents is sealed from public view.
Vilardo met with attorneys from both sides in his chambers on Friday. Speaking in open court, the judge said he will give further consideration to the matter next week and meet with attorneys again to discuss it on Dec. 8.
