A judge Tuesday allowed Peter Gerace Jr. to keep his criminal defense team intact, despite efforts by prosecutors to have one of his lawyers kicked off the case.
U.S. District Judge Lawrence Vilardo let Gerace waive any potential conflicts of interest in legal representation from his attorney Eric Soehnlein, who with Mark Foti has defended Gerace.
![Gerace defense attorneys Mark Foti and Eric Soehnlein](https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/buffalonews.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/d/65/d65f8c12-300a-11ef-a948-f7584f3128a2/6675dfd09718a.image.jpg?resize=150%2C112 150w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/buffalonews.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/d/65/d65f8c12-300a-11ef-a948-f7584f3128a2/6675dfd09718a.image.jpg?resize=200%2C150 200w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/buffalonews.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/d/65/d65f8c12-300a-11ef-a948-f7584f3128a2/6675dfd09718a.image.jpg?resize=225%2C169 225w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/buffalonews.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/d/65/d65f8c12-300a-11ef-a948-f7584f3128a2/6675dfd09718a.image.jpg?resize=300%2C225 300w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/buffalonews.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/d/65/d65f8c12-300a-11ef-a948-f7584f3128a2/6675dfd09718a.image.jpg?resize=400%2C300 400w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/buffalonews.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/d/65/d65f8c12-300a-11ef-a948-f7584f3128a2/6675dfd09718a.image.jpg?resize=540%2C405 540w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/buffalonews.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/d/65/d65f8c12-300a-11ef-a948-f7584f3128a2/6675dfd09718a.image.jpg?resize=640%2C480 640w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/buffalonews.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/d/65/d65f8c12-300a-11ef-a948-f7584f3128a2/6675dfd09718a.image.jpg?resize=750%2C562 750w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/buffalonews.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/d/65/d65f8c12-300a-11ef-a948-f7584f3128a2/6675dfd09718a.image.jpg?resize=990%2C742 990w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/buffalonews.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/d/65/d65f8c12-300a-11ef-a948-f7584f3128a2/6675dfd09718a.image.jpg?resize=1035%2C776 1035w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/buffalonews.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/d/65/d65f8c12-300a-11ef-a948-f7584f3128a2/6675dfd09718a.image.jpg?resize=1200%2C900 1200w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/buffalonews.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/d/65/d65f8c12-300a-11ef-a948-f7584f3128a2/6675dfd09718a.image.jpg?resize=1333%2C1000 1333w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/buffalonews.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/d/65/d65f8c12-300a-11ef-a948-f7584f3128a2/6675dfd09718a.image.jpg?resize=1439%2C1079 1476w)
Attorneys Mark Foti, left, and Eric Soehnlein, right, represent Peter Gerace Jr., the Pharaoh's Gentlemen's Club owner facing bribery, sex- and drug-trafficking charges in U.S. District Court.
Gerace said he “100%” wanted Soehnlein to remain as one of his lawyers. Soehnlein declined to comment after Tuesday’s court proceeding.
The judge’s ruling figures to kick-start Gerace’s bribery, sex- and drug-trafficking case that has been at a near-standstill since late last year as the U.S. Attorney’s Office investigated and sought to disqualify Soehnlein over what it called an orchestrated recusal of a federal judge. Indicted three years ago, Gerace awaits trial on charges he bribed a DEA agent and operated Pharaoh’s Gentlemen’s Club in Cheektowaga as a drug-involved premises where drugs were sold and young women were exploited through their drug addictions and coerced into sex acts. Gerace, 57, has been in pretrial custody since March 2023.
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Earlier this year, federal prosecutors said they saw a “corrupt motive” behind Soehnlein and former co-counsel Steven Cohen listing two relatives of U.S. District Judge John L. Sinatra Jr. among Gerace defense witnesses last summer. Prosecutors said they obtained a recording that indicated Gerace’s lawyers at the time “may have tactically engaged in fraudulent conduct” to orchestrate the recusal of Sinatra to get Gerace’s case to a judge more to his liking.
When Sinatra presided over Gerace’s case, Cohen made public remarks critical of the judge over some of his rulings that went against Gerace. Sinatra said he was duty-bound to recuse himself as a result of the two witnesses.
Potential witness
Vilardo, who inherited the Gerace case, said in an April ruling that he found no reasonable possibility Soehnlein committed a crime by putting the two names on the witness list. The U.S. Attorney’s Office afterward confirmed Soehnlein was no longer under investigation and will not be prosecuted for his role in crafting the witness list.
But prosecutors urged Vilardo to remove Soehnlein as Gerace’s counsel anyway. The defense lawyer, they said, is a potential witness in a separate case against the strip club owner, who since the Pharaoh’s charges has also been indicted with conspiring with others to murder Crystal Quinn, a former Pharaoh’s employee who was cooperating with the FBI and later died of a fentanyl overdose.
![U.S. District Judge Lawrence Vilardo (copy) (copy) (copy) (copy)](https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/buffalonews.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/f/ca/fcab4ca0-b15a-11ee-b5aa-f3d8b8b24c79/650079b92517e.image.jpg?resize=150%2C97 150w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/buffalonews.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/f/ca/fcab4ca0-b15a-11ee-b5aa-f3d8b8b24c79/650079b92517e.image.jpg?resize=200%2C129 200w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/buffalonews.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/f/ca/fcab4ca0-b15a-11ee-b5aa-f3d8b8b24c79/650079b92517e.image.jpg?resize=225%2C145 225w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/buffalonews.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/f/ca/fcab4ca0-b15a-11ee-b5aa-f3d8b8b24c79/650079b92517e.image.jpg?resize=300%2C194 300w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/buffalonews.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/f/ca/fcab4ca0-b15a-11ee-b5aa-f3d8b8b24c79/650079b92517e.image.jpg?resize=400%2C258 400w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/buffalonews.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/f/ca/fcab4ca0-b15a-11ee-b5aa-f3d8b8b24c79/650079b92517e.image.jpg?resize=540%2C349 540w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/buffalonews.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/f/ca/fcab4ca0-b15a-11ee-b5aa-f3d8b8b24c79/650079b92517e.image.jpg?resize=640%2C413 640w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/buffalonews.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/f/ca/fcab4ca0-b15a-11ee-b5aa-f3d8b8b24c79/650079b92517e.image.jpg?resize=750%2C484 750w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/buffalonews.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/f/ca/fcab4ca0-b15a-11ee-b5aa-f3d8b8b24c79/650079b92517e.image.jpg?resize=768%2C496 990w)
U.S. District Judge Lawrence Vilardo.
Three of the assistant U.S. attorneys handling the Pharaoh’s case are also involved in prosecuting the separate retaliation case against Gerace, and they have said Gerace intended the witness list to cause the recusal. A federal grand jury, in its indictment against Gerace and others, called the filing of the witness list an overt act in that alleged scheme.
Also, listing Quinn as a witness for Gerace circumvented the provisions of a protective order that prohibited Gerace’s attorneys from revealing to Gerace the government’s witnesses’ names and from providing Gerace with the government’s witness list, according to the indictment.
In presenting the witness list to Sinatra and defending its legitimacy, Soehnlein must have relied on information provided by Gerace, according to prosecutors, who have described the conflict of interest as one for which the court should not permit a waiver. Because of Soehnlein’s knowledge relating to the drafting, filing and content of Gerace’s witness list, Soehnlein is a witness in Gerace’s retaliation case, according to prosecutors.
“The client weaponized the attorney,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Tripi told Vilardo during a June 21 hearing.
“To the extent that Mr. Gerace used his attorneys as conduits, unwitting or otherwise, to convey false information with the goal of fraudulently inducing a federal judge to recuse himself, that constitutes obstruction – and if not obstruction, at least contempt,” said Assistant U.S. Attorney Casey Chalbeck.
“So there’s still this specter of criminality hovering over Mr. Gerace’s conduct, even though the specter does not extend to Mr. Soehlein’s, pursuant to your decision and order,” Chalbeck told the judge.
Fearing a reversal
Prosecutors fear that allowing Soehnlein to continue as counsel for Gerace could result in a reversal of any conviction, or at least give Gerace “substantial grist” for an ineffective assistance of counsel claim.
Tripi has pointed to the case of Roderick Arrington, whose murder and racketeering convictions and lifetime prison sentence were vacated in 2019 by the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals over his counsel’s conflict of interest. In Arrington’s case, a trial judge accepted Arrington’s in‐court waiver of a potential conflict related to his lawyer. But later, after a jury convicted him, Arrington successfully appealed to the federal appeals court saying his Sixth Amendment right to conflict-free counsel was violated when the trial judge failed to disqualify his counsel and failed to adequately inform him of the nature of the conflict.
Gerace and Arrington were in custody at the Niagara County jail at the same time as their cases proceeded through the court system. Prosecutors have suggested Arrington even played a role in the alleged recusal scheme, trying to help find a name that could be put on the witness list.
Court filings have been redacted and even sealed from public view, and lawyers involved in the case have been vague about the facts in court proceedings. So there’s no complete public explanation from prosecutors detailing Arrington’s involvement. But a letter from the U.S. Attorney’s Office to Arrington’s attorney in December revealed the government uncovered a conspiracy that federal investigators believed involved Arrington and Gerace. Three of the five pages in the letter dealt with Sinatra’s recusal in the Gerace case.
Tripi has expressed concern about Gerace being influenced by what happened with Arrington, who eventually pleaded guilty in his case to lesser charges that did not include murder and resulted in a far shorter prison sentence.
“I have said previously that for a long time in the Niagara County Jail, he was incarcerated with Roderick Arrington, who of 2nd Circuit fame, had his case – a murder conviction and life sentence – come back on a conflict issue,” Tripi said. “And I really question whether Mr. Gerace will just utter whatever this court needs to satisfy the waiver conditions on the record – only to complain later on.”
‘Disturbing to me’
Tuesday’s hearing for Gerace was the continuation of what’s called a Curcio hearing, during which a judge examines whether an actual or potential conflict of interest exists between a defendant and the defense lawyer and establishes whether the defendant has validly waived the right to conflict-free counsel, if the conflict can be waived.
At the start of the Curcio hearing on June 21, Vilardo advised Gerace of the risks arising from any of the alleged conflicts, ensured he had advice from an independent counsel and tried to make sure the strip club owner understood the risks of keeping Soehnlein as one of his two lawyers.
“So if you gave Mr. Soehnlein false information about relatives of Judge Sinatra that were put on your witness list, Mr. Soehnlein may be compelled to testify to that against you in another case,” Vilardo told Gerace at the June hearing. “Do you understand how this situation could limit your defense?”
Gerace replied that he understood.
“Its just some things that are said are kind of disturbing to me,” Gerace told the judge. “When the government puts a case in front of me, they seem to think I shouldn’t be able to call certain witnesses that are relevant to the case. That’s not right.”
As for the recusal, “how is it my fault?” Gerace asked.
![Peter Gerace Jr. mug from Niagara County Jail](https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/buffalonews.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/4/71/471e924e-0943-11ee-bec6-3bc0465d7c2f/6487508ec281c.image.jpg?resize=150%2C188 150w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/buffalonews.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/4/71/471e924e-0943-11ee-bec6-3bc0465d7c2f/6487508ec281c.image.jpg?resize=200%2C251 200w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/buffalonews.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/4/71/471e924e-0943-11ee-bec6-3bc0465d7c2f/6487508ec281c.image.jpg?resize=225%2C282 225w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/buffalonews.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/4/71/471e924e-0943-11ee-bec6-3bc0465d7c2f/6487508ec281c.image.jpg?resize=300%2C376 300w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/buffalonews.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/4/71/471e924e-0943-11ee-bec6-3bc0465d7c2f/6487508ec281c.image.jpg?resize=311%2C390 400w)
Gerace Jr.
“I don’t see a conflict,” Gerace said. “I don’t see a conflict at all. I don’t see where they’re coming from as far as saying that there was a crime committed.”
Prosecutors have said that if Soehnlein was a knowing and willing participant in Gerace’s alleged obstructive scheme, Soehnlein might still face ethical consequences even though there will not be any criminal consequences.
“I got to know Eric very well,” Gerace said. “I think he’s a great lawyer, and I don’t think he’d ever do anything unethical, so I’m not even worried about that.”
In a court filing last month, Soehnlein and co-counsel Foti said, “the government has repeatedly encroached on Mr. Gerace’s right to counsel.”
“The actions of the government surrounding the litigation to disqualify Mr. Soehnlein have been branded by bad faith,“ Soehnlein and Foti said.
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U.S. District Judge John Sinatra recused himself from Peter Gerace Jr.’s bribery, sex- and drug-trafficking case in June 2023.
When Sinatra recused himself, he said including the two as character witnesses on the witness list “appears to be gamesmanship” and added he was “skeptical of the tactic.”
Immediately after the recusal, Soehnlein told The Buffalo News that “one very plausible, very likely way to defend this case involves testimony from those individuals. Because they’re going to be talking about Mr. Gerace in connection to circumstances that are very close to the allegations of the government’s case.”
When the FBI interviewed the two witnesses as part of its recusal investigation, one said he had no relationship at all with Gerace and may have met him once 20 or 30 years ago. The other recalled his last interaction with Gerace was 12 years ago, calling the notion he would serve as a character witness “ridiculous,” according to a court filing by prosecutors.