Judge orders withdrawal of prosecutor trio from Peter Gerace case

BUFFALO, NY – In a rare move, a federal judge has fired three assistant U.S. attorneys from the prosecution team in the case of Pharaoh's Strip Club owner Peter Gerace.

The sanction, imposed by Judge Jeremiah McCarthy, was based on his finding that prosecutors had intentionally missed a court-imposed deadline to turn over documents to the defense.

The verdict apparently concerns only one of the three cases Gerace was charged with. He and more than half a dozen other defendants are accused of witness tampering and witness intimidation. Among them is the allegation of arranging for a witness to die of a drug overdose.

The case is still ongoing, but unless she successfully appeals McCarthy's ruling, U.S. Attorney for Western New York State Trini Ross will have to assign other assistants to take the case to trial.

Judge McCarthy had given prosecutors a deadline to turn over the evidence to the defense, but that deadline was missed. He insisted that a temporary restraining order was needed to restrict access to the evidence and witnesses and to protect the witnesses from people allegedly linked to the Mafia and motorcycle gangs who could harm them.

In her argument against sanctions, Assistant U.S. Attorney Tiffany Lee, chief of the Appellate Office for the Western District, acknowledged that her own colleagues' conduct in missing the deadline was “negligent” and amounted to a “regrettable omission.”

However, she stressed that this was neither misconduct nor malicious intent on her part.

“It was not done with any intent to deceive or be dishonest,” Lee argued in court, before McCarthy then asked her, “How can the government argue that it did not intentionally disobey my order when it did it?”

“That didn’t happen,” Lee said.

“Yes, it is,” the judge said, “and I remain convinced that the government acted in bad faith, and it pains me to say that.”

McCarthy then ordered Assistant U.S. Attorneys Nicholas Cooper and Casey Chalbeck, as well as Lead Attorney Joseph Tripi, to be removed from the case.

McCarthy did not go so far as to drop the charges entirely, as the defendants' lawyers had demanded.

He indicated in court that he believed this would be a waste of time, as he doubted such a ruling would stand up to scrutiny by an appeals court. And even if it did, the government would simply re-indict the defendants.