The defense lawyer for Peter Gerace Jr., the strip club owner who faces bribery, sex- and drug-trafficking charges, told a judge Wednesday that Gerace wants to replace him over “irreconcilable” differences in legal strategy.
“I’ve been fired,” attorney Steven M. Cohen said during a proceeding in U.S. District Court.
Cohen said Gerace’s dissatisfaction with his legal representation “goes back a long time” over not following through with some of Gerace’s instructions that Cohen said were at odds with his trial strategy.
“I’m too old to have clients tell me how to run a case,” Cohen said.
U.S. District Judge Lawrence Vilardo, whose approval would be necessary to discharge Cohen from the case, asked for affidavits from Cohen or Gerace within a week. He said he would decide how to proceed after learning more about their differences.
“I don’t plan to relieve you until there’s new counsel involved,” Vilardo said.
Gerace has reached out to other lawyers to hire, Cohen said.
But so far, Gerace has not found any able to represent him because of their commitments in other cases before Gerace’s scheduled trial start date of Oct. 23.
Cohen told Vilardo that Gerace indicated he would represent himself at trial if he had to.
“That would be an extraordinarily unwise thing for you to do,” Vilardo told Gerace, who has been in custody since March.
Federal authorities have accused Gerace of bribing Joseph Bongiovanni, at the time a Drug Enforcement Administration agent, and conspiring to engage in drug trafficking and human trafficking at Pharaoh’s Gentlemen’s Club in Cheektowaga. Prosecutors have charged the now-retired Bongiovanni with accepting $250,000 in bribes from drug dealers whom he thought were associated with Italian organized crime and shielding them from arrest, as well as providing them with information about investigations and cooperating sources. Both have pleaded not guilty. Both are scheduled to stand trial together.
Last week, Vilardo allowed attorney Eric Soehnlein to withdraw from the Gerace defense team. The reason Soehnlein cited for his request was not included in any publicly available court document.
“But I think (Gerace) had similiar issues with Mr. Soehnlein that he now has with me,” Cohen said.
Cohen took over as Gerace’s trial counsel in the summer of 2021 when Gerace’s previous attorney, Joel Daniels, left the case over a conflict of interest issue regarding Daniels’ representation of Gerace.
“I believe in Mr. Gerace’s defense 100%,” Cohen said. “But he has terminated me, and I think he has a right to do that.
“We’re at a point now where if we try this case and lose, Mr. Gerace has an instant appeal based upon the fact that he had counsel that wouldn’t do what he said,” Cohen said at the hearing. “And chances are I’ll end up being grieved or sued for malpractice.”
The comings and goings of lawyers and judges in the case have already caused the trial to be postponed twice.
In May, a June trial start day was postponed to Aug. 14 when defense attorney James P. Harrington, who had represented Bongiovanni since April 2020, was allowed to withdraw from the case for medical reasons. Attorneys Robert Singer and Parker MacKay were named as replacements, and they were given 89 days to prepare for trial.
Then the trial date was pushed back to Oct. 23 after U.S. District Judge John L. Sinatra Jr. removed himself from the case, prompting it to be reassigned to Vilardo.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph M. Tripi voiced concern about another change in lawyers delaying the trial.
“This is now the third set-in-stone trial date,” he said of the Oct. 23 date.
Neither of the previous postponements have been caused by the prosecution, he said.
Tripi suggested it would be “prudent for the court to dig a little deeper” into Gerace’s motive for trying to replace Cohen.
“If you were to find this is a tactical delay, you could deny it,” Tripi said.
“To suggest this is a delay tactic is contrary to the record,” Cohen replied.
