BUFFALO, N.Y. (WKBW) — A former Buffalo DEA agent accused of taking more than a quarter million dollars in bribes has been found guilty on two of the 15 counts brought against him.
Friday, after six days of deliberating, the jury delivered a guilty verdict for obstruction of justice and making a false statement. The jury found him not guilty of a separate count of obstruction of justice.
The jury could not reach a verdict on 12 other counts against Bongiovanni.
Prosecutors alleged that Joseph Bongiovanni, 59, betrayed his duties to the public by accepting bribes in exchange for protecting and providing information to drug traffickers and a strip club owner who had ties to Italian organized crime.
Bongiovanni was indicted on 15 charges including conspiracy to defraud the government, public officials accepting bribes, conspiracy to distribute controlled substances, and obstruction of justice.
The jury began deliberations on Wednesday following a more than six-week-long trial.
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Bongiovanni was arrested in 2019. He had retired earlier in 2019 as an investigation into his conduct.
Prosecutors said Bongiovanni was motivated by his "respect" for members of Italian organized crime. They said he was also having financial problems, having to pay alimony and child support to his ex-wife and then also spending lavishly on vacations, clothes for his new wife and a 1960 convertible Buick.
A key piece of evidence in the case was a cardboard box labeled in large letters "DEA EVIDENCE" that investigators found when they conducted a search of Bongiovanni's Tonawanda home, according to Assistant US Attorney Joseph Tripi. He told jurors in his closing arguments that Bongiovanni took files home on his last day before he retired from the Buffalo DEA office that included records of a "sham investigation" he had set up on Ron Serio, a suspected marijuana trafficker. The fake investigation allowed Bongiovanni to keep tabs on who might be interested in that case and he was accused of taking steps to kill those investigations. In exchange, Tripi said Bongiovanni was paid $2,000 a month and later $4,000 a month, sometimes as cash in paper bags that he'd retrieve from the side entrance to Pharoah's Gentlemen's Club in Cheektowaga.
Bongiovanni's attorneys maintained their client was innocent and that he took home the files to protect himself and that investigators never found money.
During the trial, Tripi 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.
