Twelve days after a jury convicted him, Joseph Bongiovanni on Tuesday asked for new lawyers to represent him, citing an irreparable breakdown in his relationship with his current legal team.

“I’m stunned by this,” U.S. District Court Judge Lawrence Vilardo said of the retired Drug Enforcement Administration agent’s request.

“I thought the lawyering in this case was superb on both sides, and I don’t say that lightly,” Vilardo said during a court proceeding Tuesday.

Vilardo said he received an affidavit from Bongiovanni concerning the request. The affidavit was not publicly available. 

Former DEA agent Joseph Bongiovanni, middle, arrives for a hearing on June 21, 2023, at the Robert H. Jackson U.S. Courthouse with his lawyers, Parker MacKay, left, and Robert Singer. Bongiovanni has asked a federal judge for new lawyers following his conviction this month on seven of 11 counts.

Derek Gee, Buffalo News

Bongiovanni wants to replace defense attorneys Robert Singer and Parker MacKay, who were appointed by the court on May 17, 2023, to represent him and compensated by the government after he was financially unable to retain counsel when his initial retained lawyers left the case. 

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Singer and MacKay represented Bongiovanni in his trial earlier this year, when a jury deadlocked on most of the counts, but convicted him of two charges, and in the two-month retrial that concluded earlier this month with guilty verdicts on seven of the 11 counts he faced in U.S. District Court.

When asked to explain his request, Bongiovanni asked to meet with Vilardo separately to disclose his reasons and help the judge “understand this better.”

“It’s too late to save the relationship, at this point,” Singer said.

Singer said interference from John J. Gilsenan, a Rochester lawyer who had helped the legal defense team during the two trials, fractured the relationship between Bongiovanni and his two defense lawyers.

Former DEA agent Joseph Bongiovanni, 60, faces 11 charges as his retrial gets underway, many related to his dealings with Peter Gerace Jr., th…

“We unknowingly allowed a fox in the hen house,” Singer told the judge.

Gilsenan assisted Singer and MacKay during the trial, but did not cross-examine government witnesses or make any legal arguments before the judge. 

Singer said Gilsenan was terminated from the case shortly after the Oct. 10 verdict.

The suggestion another lawyer undermined the relationship between a client and his lawyers “is very, very distressing to me,” Vilardo said.

Gilsenan did not attend the court proceeding.

The special agent in charge of Homeland Security Investigations in Buffalo confirmed an investigation remains ongoing. 

When asked for comment by The Buffalo News, Gilsenan said, “I’ll do my speaking in the courtroom and through my filings.”

“My primary focus is on protecting Mr. Bongiovanni’s interests,” Gilsenan said.

The legal work that remains in Bongiovanni’s case includes motions to the district judge to set aside his felony convictions, and if those fail, to review and comment on a presentence report prepared by probation officials, to prepare a sentencing recommendation to the judge, and to appeal the guilty verdicts to an appellate court.

Bongiovanni has a lawyer in mind to represent him, although he did not name him in open court, and he also wants Gilsenan appointed as co-counsel.

“It’s not how this works,” Vilardo told Bongiovanni.

A replacement would come from the Criminal Justice Act – or CJA – panel of private attorneys who accept appointed cases.

“If you want to take your chances with another lawyer, you can do that,” Vilardo said. “But you don’t get to pick one.”

Assistant U.S. attorney Joseph Tripi asked Vilardo to reject the request. 

Tripi said Bongiovanni’s legal representation improved after the appointment of Singer and MacKay, who he said are “clearly in the upper tier” of the skilled defense lawyers he has faced off against as a federal prosecutor.

Tripi said the two defense lawyers distinguished themselves by the legal issues they raised, their focus on the issues and their tenacity.

The heist might have been just a chucklesome story in the annals of Western New York crime – if not for whose house John McDonald burglarized and whose ring was inside the safe.

“Perhaps Mr. Bongiovanni doesn’t like the result of the trial,” Tripi said.

Vilardo agreed to a meeting with Bongiovanni, Singer and MacKay later this week, but declined to meet with Bongiovanni alone. 

Jurors in Bongiovanni’s retrial convicted him on four counts related to the Ronald Serio and Michael Masecchia marijuana trafficking organization: conspiracy to defraud the U.S; conspiracy to distribute controlled substances; and two counts of obstruction of justice. Bongiovanni’s three other convictions were related to Pharaoh’s Gentlemen’s Club owner Peter Gerace Jr. – two counts of obstruction of justice and one count of false statement to a U.S. agency – for internal DEA memos he wrote and for what he told investigators about his past contact with the Cheektowaga strip club owner.

The jury in Bongiovanni’s first trial found him guilty on one count of obstruction of justice and one count of lying to federal agents over a case file kept in his home after his retirement.

Bongiovanni was also acquitted on several charges. Jurors at his retrial found Bongiovanni not guilty of accepting a bribe from the Serio-Masecchia drug-trafficking organization. They also acquitted Bongiovanni of two corruption charges and a drug count related to accusations that he protected Gerace and his Cheektowaga strip club from narcotics investigations. Jurors at his first trial acquitted Bongiovanni, 60, of obstruction of justice for deleting data on his DEA-issued cellphone when he retired. And before the start of his retrial, U.S. District Judge Lawrence Vilardo acquitted him on the charge he was paid an undetermined amount by Gerace to help him and his Pharaoh’s Gentlemen’s Club avoid federal narcotics investigations.

Patrick Lakamp can be reached at plakamp@buffnews.com

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