BUFFALO, N.Y. — After seven weeks, testimony ended Wednesday at the trial of Pharaoh's Gentlemen's Club owner Peter Gerace.
After the prosecution rested its case, the defense announced it would not be calling a witnesses. This would include Gerace, who informed the judge that, upon the advice of his attorneys, he would be declining his opportunity to testify on his own behalf.
Closing arguments will be held on Thursday, and on Friday, the judge will give final instructions to jurors before they begin deliberations.
Gerace is charged with drug trafficking, sex trafficking, and witness tampering.
He is also charged with bribing former DEA Agent Joseph Bongiovanni, who was listed as a co-defendant under the indictment against Gerace and who was tried separately and acquitted.
During the trial, prosecutors called several former Pharaoh's employees as witnesses, who testified the use and distribution of narcotics was commonplace in the club, as were acts of prostitution between dancers and patrons.
The final prosecution witness was FBI special agent Brian Burns, who said following a December 2019 raid on the club, agents reviewed weeks worth of footage from dozens of surveillance cameras inside the club.
But time and time again, Burns had to say they found no relevant information during the search. Meaning they captured no drug activity, nor any extras being provided by dancers during lap dances, as several prosecution witnesses claimed.
Under cross examination by Gerace's lawyers, it also came to light that the FBI interviewed several other former workers who said such activity was not allowed in the club, but who were never called to testify. Those who, according to the defense, either had animus toward Gerace for had been fired, or were trying to work deals in their own criminal cases.
Prosecutors countered that many of the alleged acts occurred several years before that 2019 raid when Gerace allegedly used the drug addictions of dancers and their fear of going through withdrawal as a means to coerce them into sex acts not only with him, but with friends and patrons who were big spenders at the club as well.