Judge John L. Michalski sometimes told convicted criminals in State Supreme Court that he was sparing them from long prison terms because he wanted to help them find redemption.
Outside the courtroom, he is known for his lively and outrageous sense of humor, his pranks at social gatherings, an infectious, high-pitched laugh and his devotion to his wife and four children.
The fun-loving Michalski was the last person his friends expected to lie down in front of a slow-moving freight train, they told The Buffalo News.
But the judge was hit by a train on Feb. 28.
He survived with a serious leg injury, but has been embroiled in controversy ever since, with federal and state authorities investigating his friendship with an indicted strip club owner.
And the incident has sent shockwaves through the legal and political communities of Western New York.
“I certainly was as surprised as anyone who would have known John that he may have taken personal actions that may have caused the accident as opposed to a freak accident,” said former Rep. Thomas M. Reynolds, who played a pivotal role in securing Michalski’s appointment as a state judge.
Reynolds and other acquaintances of the judge said it would be wrong to draw any conclusions about Michalski and what led to the Feb. 28 incident on railroad tracks near the Depew Amtrak Station.
“I think it is important that he recovers, and we wait until the facts become known,” Reynolds said.
What is known is that about a week before Michalski was struck by the CSX freight train, federal agents contacted the judge to question him about his friendship with Peter G. Gerace Jr., owner of Pharaoh's Gentlemen's Club in Cheektowaga, and a target in the federal government’s ongoing investigation into organized crime in Buffalo.
Gerace was charged with felony counts of bribing a DEA agent, sex trafficking and narcotics trafficking on the same day Michalski was struck by the train.
The state Commission on Judicial Conduct is also investigating whether Gerace paid Michalski $5,000 in cash for performing his wedding in 2014 despite a state law that bars judges from being paid more than $100 for that duty, according to two government sources.
And there is a witness to the train incident who told WIVB-TV he videotaped Michalski jogging toward the tracks and laying down in front of the CSX train.
He sought leniency for Gerace
The friendship between the judge and Gerace began decades ago when Michalski was in private practice and performed legal work for Gerace's strip club, according to attorney Anthony J. Lana, who is assisting the judge.
In 2006, when Gerace was awaiting sentencing for a felony wire fraud conviction related to his sweepstakes telemarketing business, Michalski wrote a letter to U.S. District Judge William M. Skretny, asking him to show leniency for his friend.
In his letter, Michalski described Gerace as a client and friend for nearly a decade. He said Gerace was a hardworking businessman with a great sense of humor, and also a “fantastic Dad” of two young boys.
“Our families socialized together, and it is a pleasure to do so,” Michalski wrote of Gerace. “We have spoken at length about the mistakes we both have made. … He is extremely remorseful regarding the effect his criminal activity has had on the victims.”
“He is no risk to our community,” Michalski added in the letter.
After reading character letters from Michalski and others, Skretny gave Gerace a break, sentencing him to five months in prison when advisory sentencing guidelines suggested a prison term of eight to 12 months.
Less than three months after writing the Gerace letter, Michalski became a state judge, when he was appointed by then-Gov. George E. Pataki.
Gerace is now charged with bribing Drug Enforcement Administration Agent Joseph Bongiovanni. Bongiovanni, now retired, has been charged with accepting $250,000 in bribes to protect alleged drug dealers with ties to organized crime. Both men have pleaded not guilty.
Michalski’s support for Gerace was no surprise to James Oliver, an Amherst restaurateur who is a friend of both Michalski and Gerace.
“If John’s your friend, he is no fair-weather friend,” Oliver said. “If you needed anything, to borrow tools, anything, he was one of those guys you could count on.”
The 'life of the party'
Attorney Michael A. Benson, whose friendship with Michalski goes back to their law school days at the University at Buffalo, said it is too early to draw conclusions about recent developments involving Michalski.
“Hopefully when the facts come out, it will show that John is an honest judge and lawyer whose integrity is intact," Benson said. “I personally don’t believe the allegations and I hope nobody does.”
Many of the 32 friends and colleagues of Michalski interviewed by The News described him as a gregarious, caring and fun-loving man. Several friends used the words “life of the party” to sum up his persona.
“His standout characteristic has always been his sense of humor,” said defense lawyer Joseph J. Terranova, who first met Michalski more than 30 years ago when they played pickup hockey together. “Such an upbeat, funny, socially engaged guy … just a fun person to spend time with.”
“We have an annual golf tournament and he’d have this multicolored sports jacket and he’d have the winner wear it, like the green sports jacket the winner wears at the Masters,” one of Michalski’s judicial colleagues recalled.
Although friends describe Michalski as colorful as the bright, eye-popping bow ties he wears to work, people close to him say they are in the dark when it comes to what happened on that Sunday morning on the railroad tracks.
They said friends have left phone messages and sent texts wishing him a speedy recovery.
Michalski has not responded to several requests for an interview from The News and a family member declined Thursday to comment.
Becoming a lawyer
A graduate of Maryvale High School, Michalski grew up on George Urban Boulevard.
He continued his studies at SUNY Oswego, where he would meet his future wife, Susan, a Long Island native. They would marry after he graduated from UB Law School in 1987.
“John is Mr. Responsible. Even in law school, he was very responsible. We had fun, but he studied hard and worked his way through it. He did everything, landscaping, you name it, John would do it,” said Benson.
Michalski’s first job as a lawyer was at the Erie County District Attorney’s Office, where he specialized in domestic violence prosecutions. He later went into private practice.
Working as a criminal defense attorney during the 1990s, he handled several cases involving violent, high-profile drug gangs. One of his clients, Myron Brown, was sentenced to 8 1/3 to 25 years for shooting and killing a member of Buffalo’s Tenth Street gang near a Buffalo crack house.
“John was a very good lawyer, who also handled some sophisticated civil cases,” recalled Terranova.
For several years, Michalski also served as a prosecutor for Amherst, the town where he and his wife settled to raise their family.
At the same time, he boosted his public and political profile. Michalski served as president at two Buffalo organizations – the Advocates Club, a club made up of Polish American lawyers, and the Professional and Businessmen's Association.
Reynolds, who at the time was the top elected Republican in Erie County, said he would often bump into Michalski at community events and took a liking to him.
“I thought John was both conscientious as a prosecutor, serious in the practice of law and active in the community,” Reynolds said. “He was also a very funny guy. If you were with him and didn’t have a few chuckles, you didn’t have much of a sense of humor."
For Michalski to find himself in Reynold’s good graces was fortuitous. Reynolds had the ear of Pataki, a close GOP ally with whom he had served in the state Assembly. In fact, they sat next to each other.
In 2003, Michalski ran unsuccessfully on the Republican line for an Erie County Family Court judgeship. In 2005, he ran unsuccessfully for State Supreme Court judge. The following year, when an unexpired three-year term with the State Court of Claims became available, Reynolds said he went to the governor and recommended Michalski for the appointment.
James P. Domagalski, chairman of the Erie County Republican Committee at that time, said he and other senior Republican leaders also went to bat for Michalski’s appointment.
And there was something else playing in Michalski’s favor.
Michalski, his campaign committees and his spouse gave nearly $7,500 in political contributions to the Republican Party and GOP politicians. Many of the donations were made in the 12 months before he was appointed to the Court of Claims. Some went to state senators from Western New York prior to their voting to confirm his appointment on June 21, 2006.
His judgeship
Twelve local attorneys who spoke to The News described Michalski, who technically serves as an acting State Supreme Court justice, as a fair and compassionate judge.
During his sentencings, Michalski often speaks of giving convicted criminals a chance to redeem themselves.
In 2012, a woman named Sherry Holcomb admitted she stole $15,000 from a charitable fund set up to help her son fight cancer. Holcomb said a gambling addiction led her to steal the money. Her theft outraged many people in Western New York and also drew some national publicity.
Michalski could have sent her to prison for four years, but the judge put her on probation for five years, ordered her to perform 200 hours of community service, and directed her to repay the stolen money.
"You do deserve a chance for redemption," Michalski told Holcomb. "I don't want to stand in the way of that."
Attorney Steven M. Cohen, who is representing Gerace in a libel and defamation lawsuit against his ex-wife, said Michalski did not hesitate to free Lynn M. Dejac when her murder conviction for killing her 13-year-old daughter was overturned based on DNA evidence.
Dejac had already served 13 ½ years. Prosecutors planned to try her again. But Michalski released her from prison without bail in late 2007. Eventually the District Attorney’s Office decided against a new trial after two forensic pathologists determined Dejac's daughter did not die from manual strangulation.
“Judge Michalski was the only one who had the guts to open up the jail cell when Detective Dennis Delano presented the DNA evidence that Lynn was innocent,” said Cohen, who represented Dejac in a civil suit for wrongful incarceration.
Former Gov. David A. Paterson – a Democrat – reappointed Michalski in May 2009 to a full nine-year term on the Court of Claims. Michalski was again reappointed in 2018 to the $210,900 a year job by Democratic Gov. Andrew A. Cuomo.
Now, as the judge recovers at home from the freight train injury, he has come under scrutiny not only of federal agents, but the Judicial Conduct Commission, the agency that investigates allegations of misconduct by state judges.
The investigations
Katrina Nigro, the former wife of Gerace, says she is cooperating with federal agents and prosecutors in their investigation into organized crime and has told them about her ex-husband’s friendship with Michalski.
That includes a $5,000 payment that Nigro says Gerace gave to Michalski for performing their marriage – above the state's $100 wedding fee limit for judges. Gerace denied paying Michalski that much.
Lana, the attorney who is helping Michalski, said he is not aware of any illegal dealings between Gerace and the judge.
A spokesman for the Commission on Judicial Conduct declined to comment when asked if the commission is investigating Michalski.
Good wishes for Michalski
In the dozens of interviews conducted by The News on the judge, only Nigro voiced any criticism of him. Nigro said Michalski should not have performed the marriage to Gerace because she was highly intoxicated at the time. She also said Michalski granted a waiver of the required 24-hour waiting period after their marriage license was issued under false pretenses after Gerace claimed he needed some surgery.
But Nigro also had some positive comments on the judge, recalling an evening when she and Gerace went to dinner with the judge and his wife.
“I could see he really loved his wife,” Nigro said.
The incident with the train astonishes and upsets many people who know Michalski. Terranova said he is still having a tough time coming to grips with it.
“Out of all the people I have met in the local legal community over the past 42 years,” Terranova said, “John would be one of the very last people I’d expect to lie down in the path of a freight train.”
