Three and half years after Joseph Bongiovanni was first indicted, a federal judge Wednesday appointed two seasoned lawyers as his new defense counsel and told them to be ready to defend the former Drug Enforcement Administration agent by the new Aug. 14 trial date.
The two said in court they face a stiff challenge taking over Bongiovanni’s defense.
“I don’t think this is a case that can be ramped up in 60 days,” said attorney Robert C. Singer, who with Parker R. MacKay, took charge of his defense.
“This is going to take months to get up to speed on,” MacKay said at Wednesday’s hearing before U.S. District Judge John L. Sinatra Jr. announced jury selection would start Aug. 14.
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They will have 89 days to prepare.
Federal authorities have charged the former federal agent of accepting $250,000 in bribes from drug dealers and providing them with information about investigations and cooperating sources. A co-defendant, Peter Gerace Jr., who will stand trial with Bongiovanni, is charged with bribing Bongiovanni and conspiring to engage in drug trafficking and human trafficking at Gerace’s Pharaoh’s Gentlemen’s Club in Cheektowaga.
Both have pleaded not guilty.
Attorney James P. Harrington, who represented Bongiovanni since April 2020, was allowed to withdraw from the case for medical reasons, prompting Sinatra to appoint Singer and MacKay as replacements and to delay the start of the high-profile trial that was to have begun next month.
Harrington, 78, last week told the judge he could stick with the case if allowed to take on a reduced role as second counsel. But he filed a motion Tuesday seeking to be removed entirely.
“There was discussion of my taking a reduced role as second counsel,” Harrington said in his filing. “However, after consulting with my physicians and considering the best interests of Mr. Bongiovanni, I am moving to withdraw from the case.”
Harrington’s withdrawal comes at a difficult time, as the initial trial date loomed and with Gerace already in pre-trial custody and his lawyers anxious to share more evidence with him to mount his defense.
Federal prosecutors, who favored the judge adding a co-counsel for Bongiovanni, objected to allowing Harrington to withdraw unless he was completely retiring from practicing law, noting that he was still involved in other unrelated cases. At a hearing last week, Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph M. Tripi bristled at Harrington’s request to withdraw, telling Sinatra that he did not believe Harrington was not able to try the case and that “this court shouldn’t believe a word of it.”
Even as one of Gerace’s lawyers sought to avoid a trial postponement, he also defended Harrington’s bid to withdraw as Bongiovanni’s lawyer.
“He’s a personal hero of mine,” attorney Eric Soehnlein, a member of Gerace’s defense team, told the judge. “He’s a legend in the legal community. His career and professionalism is nothing short of remarkable. I’ve seen him struggle through his medical issue. If he says he can’t do it, I believe he can’t do it.”
Prosecutors previously portrayed Harrington’s request to withdraw as a tactic to delay the trial and give the defense more time to review evidence, obtain witness identities and “orchestrate” other legal maneuvers – and the government warned it could potentially jeopardize the safety of witnesses.
Harrington’s request last week came as the defense lawyers for Bongiovanni and Gerace were about to be permitted to share the identities of many prosecution witnesses with their respective clients. The judge has prevented defense lawyers from sharing the identities of many witnesses with their respective clients because of concerns about the witnesses’ safety. And not even the defense lawyers know the names of 11 witnesses whom the judge allowed prosecutors to designate in pre-trial submissions as a “protected witness” rather than by their true names. Their identities are not expected to be revealed until around the start of the trial.
Sinatra granted Harrington’s request to appoint his replacements from the Criminal Justice Act – or CJA – panel of private attorneys who accept appointed cases and are compensated by the government to represent those who are financially unable to retain counsel.
“While Mr. Bongiovanni has some joint assets with his wife, he is unable to afford to retain new counsel for his case based on his economic circumstances,” Harrington said in court papers.
When Sinatra asked the newly appointed defense counsel how much time they thought they would need to prepare for trial, Singer noted there are hundreds of thousands of pages of discovery material to review.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Nicholas Cooper, part of the prosecution team, said the new defense counsels do not need to re-argue suppression and other motions already decided, but simply need to prepare for trial. Cooper told Sinatra the government opposed postponing the trial, but if the judge planned to grant one that it should be “short as possible.”
Sinatra said he opted for a 54-day postponement given the “experienced and capable lawyers” he appointed as replacements, both of whom he said can immediately immerse themselves into the case.
The length of the trial delay should cause “no substantial impairment to Mr. Bongiovanni’s defense,” Sinatra said.