A federal judge said he would decide "in short order" how defense attorneys can access and use evidence collected during the investigation into the death of a witness in the Pharaoh's strip club case. U.S.
District Judge Lawrence Vilardo will also decide whether to vacate another judge's "bad faith" finding against three federal prosecutors who handled the case. The prosecutors skipped a court-ordered deadline to turn over to defense lawyers the remaining information about witnesses and evidence in the drug overdose death of Crystal Quinn. The former exotic dancer, who died in the summer of 2023, had agreed to testify against Pharaoh's Gentlemen's Club owner Peter Gerace Jr.
Jury selection in Gerace's bribery, sexand drug-trafficking trial started Monday. The prosecutors have called missing the May 23 deadline a mistake – but not one that warrants the bad faith finding. They had turned over information to lawyers for some of the nine indicted defendants.
But they delayed turning over the rest after realizing shortly before the deadline that they lacked an agreement with the defense lawyers on a protective order to restrict who could see the information. The defense lawyers have since received all the information under an "attorney's eyes only" restriction. "We can't investigate the case," said Assistant Federal Public Defender Jeffrey T.
Bagley, who represents Simon Gogolack, the man who called 911 to report Quinn's death in his Wellsville home. "I can't sit down with my cl.