BUFFALO, N.Y. — A federal detention hearing for two men indicted on charges related to sex trafficking in connection to Pharaoh's Gentlemen's Club has been delayed.
The attorney for Joseph Barsuk was granted an extra week by a judge in federal court Wednesday to give him time to review his client's mental health history.
The question of bail was postponed at his arraignment last Thursday because Barsuk had just been assigned an attorney. He will remain in federal custody at least until the new hearing, on October 11.
Prosecutors have indicated Barsuk may have been a customer at Pharaoh's. He was charged with sex trafficking by coercion.
Barsuk pleaded not guilty last week, a day after his property in the town of Batavia was raided by the FBI, in connection with the case against Pharaoh's owner Peter Gerace, sources told 2 On Your Side.
The other man, Brian Rosenthal, a longtime bouncer at the club, was released without bail last week after the judge deemed he was not a flight risk, but was back in court for the detention hearing.
Prosecutors have said Rosenthal allowed alleged drug and sex-related crimes to happen at Pharaoh's by turning a blind eye or being paid to look the other way. He told investigators his primary role was to secure VIP rooms, to make sure there was no drug activity or any illicit contact between dancers and their clients, but those sorts of things still happened.
He was also charged with lying to the FBI and concealing a felony.
A sealed protective order was also discussed in court Wednesday after being filed by prosecutors seeking to limit what information is shared and discussed.
Rosenthal's attorney disagreed with one section of that sealed order however Paragraph 29, the contents of which are unknown. The judge therefore requested that both parties draw up their own orders to be submitted for review at the Oct. 11 hearing.