BUFFALO, N.Y. (WKBW) — A quarter million dollars in cash bribes. Thousands of pounds of marijuana. Cocaine and prostitution at a Cheektowaga strip club.
Former Drug Enforcement Administration agent Joseph Bongiovanni is at the center of it all.
Bongiovanni is accused of taking money from old friends from his North Buffalo neighborhood with alleged connections to "Italian Organized Crime."
On Thursday, attorneys in the highly anticipated trial against Bongiovanni gave their opening statements.
The U.S. Attorney's Office is painting Bongiovanni as a "double agent" who betrayed his duties to the public by accepting more than $250,000 in bribes in exchange for providing sensitive information and steering cases away from his friends. He is charged with 15 crimes, including for accepting bribes.
Bongiovanni's attorneys countered that he never took any bribes and that the government's case against him is built on the questionable testimony of those with grudges against him and others who are hoping for leniency from the Justice Department by testifying against him.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Trippi told the 12 jurors and six alternates seated for the trial that Bongiovanni was motivated by financial problems stemming from a costly divorce and his taste for nights on the town and fancy trips, as well as his admiration for those associated with "Italian Organized Crime."
Trippi described who he called "key players" figures in the case:
- Lou Selva: Bongiovanni's best friend from childhood who was his best man at his wedding and a former jail deputy at the Erie County Sheriff's Office. Trippi told jurors he was a marijuana grower and courier.
- Michael Messechia: another childhood friend and a former Buffalo Schools teacher. Trippi described him as a "marijuana trafficker" and alleged he was a member of "Italian organized crime." "The muscle and money man," Trippi said of Messechia.
- Ron Serio: Trippi said that Bongiovanni and Serio never met in person but were deeply connected. Serio was the financier of a marijuana trafficking operation.
- Peter Gerace Jr.: Another longtime friend from Bongiovanni's childhood. He was the owner of Pharoah's Gentlemen's Club in Cheektowaga, where Trippi said Gerace provided "cocaine and women to high-end clientele." Trippi also said Gerace is the grandson of Joseph Todaro, the "reputed leader of the Buffalo Mafia," and that Bongiovanni was aware of that. Todaro has never been convicted of a crime. Also, Bongiovanni is not accused of being a member.
Before the trial began, U.S. District Court Judge Lawrence Vilardo laid out rules for the attorneys, barring the U.S. Attorney's Office from using the word "mafia" in front of the jury and reminded Trippi outside of the presence of the jury not to use that term again during the trial.
The trial is expected to last as long as eight weeks.
You can find the full indictment below.
