BUFFALO, N.Y. — A key witness in the recently concluded trial of former DEA agent Joseph Bongiovanni was back in court on Thursday, testifying at the drug and sex trafficking trial of Pharaoh's Gentlemen's Club owner Peter Gerace.
Bongiovanni and Gerace, though tried separately, are co-defendants under the indictment in which the two men were charged.
Anthony Casullo, a retired DEA agent who worked with Bongiovanni at the agency's Buffalo office is an important witness to prosecutors as they try and prove their allegations that Gerace operated Pharaoh's as a drug involved premises and used the business to distribute narcotics.
As he did during the Bongiovanni trial, Casullo testified that he had suspected that Gerace, a former classmate of his at St. Joseph's Collegiate Institute, was involved in narcotics.
However, as he began to pursue an investigation in 2016, he said that Bongiovanni angrily confronted him and chewed him out, claiming among other things that Gerace was his confidential informant.
"Did you walk out of that room with the impression that he did not want you to investigate Peter Gerace?" prosecutor Nicholas Cooper said.
"Oh, absolutely," Casullo replied.
Bongiovanni was convicted of several counts earlier this year related to allegations he used his position to interfere with investigations of certain dealers whom the government claimed were bribing him. But Bongiovanni was acquitted of counts involving alleged bribes from Gerace.
Not wanting to maker waves, and in a move he says he now regrets, Casullo backed off on the Gerace investigation.
It wasn't until two years later when he was present during an interview of admitted drug dealer Ron Serio, who claimed he was making payments that were supposed to be directed through a third party to Bongiovanni, that Casullo finally spoke up.
This ultimately resulted in evidence used to indict Bongiovanni and Gerace.
Casullo admitted on the stand he backed down from Bongiovanni because he was fearful of repercussions that might come from crossing the so called thin blue line, and said those fears materialized when he finally did.
He testified that he was subsequently shunned by fellow agents, some of whom stopped talking to him.
He said he felt so ostracized that he leapt at the chance to be assigned to work that wouldn't require him to be around them at the DEA office in the Electric Tower.
"It all came true. ... It was the worst experience of my career," Casullo said.