NATIONAL NEWS

Jury convicts former DEA agent of obstruction but fails to reach verdict on Buffalo bribery charges

Apr 12, 2024, 3:06 PM

BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — A federal jury on Friday convicted a former U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agent of obstruction of justice and lying to federal agents. But jurors acquitted Joseph Bongiovanni of a charge that he improperly wiped his DEA cellphone and failed to reach a verdict on a dozen other charges, including allegations the longtime agent pocketed $250,000 in bribes from the Buffalo Mafia.

The mixed verdict followed a week of often-heated deliberations and a seven-week trial that cast a harsh light on the DEA’s supervision of agents amid a string of corruption scandals at the agency.

Bongiovanni is among at least 16 DEA agents brought up on federal charges since 2015, including several serving lengthy prison sentences. Two former DEA supervisors are awaiting sentencing in a separate bribery scandal in Miami involving intelligence leaks to defense attorneys.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Tripi said prosecutors will seek to retry Bongiovanni as soon as possible on the corruption charges that hung the jury, including allegations the agent shielded a sex-trafficking strip club outside Buffalo, New York, and derailed investigations into his childhood friends.

But defense attorney Robert Singer said he would move to dismiss those counts, saying the disagreement among jurors “calls into question whether this prosecution should continue.”

The mixed verdict “showed everybody that the government’s evidence was really not that convincing,” Singer said. “The only thing Mr. Bongiovanni was convicted of was taking a file from the DEA office to his house.”

Prosecutors alleged Bongiovanni provided an “umbrella of protection” to childhood friends who became drug dealers and other suspects with ties to organized crime, opening bogus case files to throw off colleagues, vouching for criminals, revealing the names of confidential informants and keeping tabs on whether trafficker friends were on law enforcement’s radar.

Prosecutors described Bongiovanni’s betrayal as a “little dark secret” fueled by his own financial woes and a misplaced loyalty to the city’s tight-knit Italian American community. At one point, they said, he admonished a DEA colleague to spend less time investigating Italians and more time on Blacks and Hispanics, allegedly using racial slurs for both groups.

“He chose loyalty to criminal friends over duty,” Tripi told jurors in his closing argument. “He enabled serious crimes and serious criminals to thrive under his watchful eye of protection.”

The DEA did not respond to requests for comment on the verdict.

Bongiovanni did not take the stand in his own defense. But his attorneys vehemently denied the charges and said the government failed to prove the veteran DEA agent was on the take. They noted there was no evidence of extravagant spending found when federal authorities raided the agent’s home.

The trial was part of a sprawling sex-trafficking prosecution involving the Pharoah’s Gentlemen’s Club outside Buffalo. Bongiovanni was childhood friends with the strip club’s indicted owner, Peter Gerace Jr., who authorities say has close ties to both the Buffalo Mafia and the notoriously violent Outlaws Motorcycle Club. Gerace attorney Mark Foti said his client denies wrongdoing and looks forward to confronting the government’s allegations at his own trial.

Prosecutors said Bongiovanni went through financial struggles during his two-decade career that made him vulnerable to taking bribes. They pointed to tens of thousands of dollars of what they said were unexplained cash deposits into Bongiovanni’s bank account.

Singer said Bongiovanni and his wife, Lindsay, lived paycheck to paycheck and relied on credit cards to support their lifestyle, something that wouldn’t be necessary with the influx of cash. “They took loans to pay off loans,” he said.

But Tripi, the prosecutor, said the cash bribes allowed Bongiovanni and his wife to take 22 trips between 2013 and 2018, and to buy and restore a 1960 Buick.

“Once he became a double agent, a sworn law enforcement officer working for the criminals, there was no turning back,” Tripi said.

___

Mustian reported from Natchitoches, Louisiana.

___

Contact AP’s global investigative team at Investigative@ap.org or https://www.ap.org/tips/

National News

FILE — Former U.S. Rep. Michael Grimm arrives to his polling site in the Staten Island borough of...

Associated Press

Michael Grimm, former House member convicted of tax fraud, is paralyzed in fall from horse

NEW YORK (AP) — Former U.S. Rep. Michael Grimm, a New York Republican who resigned from Congress following a tax fraud conviction, is paralyzed from the chest down after being thrown from a horse during a polo tournament, according to friends who are raising funds to pay for the ex-lawmaker’s medical care. Grimm, 54, suffered […]

3 minutes ago

This undated photo provided by the South Carolina Department of Corrections shows the witness room ...

Associated Press

South Carolina does not set a date for the next execution after requests for a holiday pause

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — South Carolina’s Supreme Court has not set a date for the state’s next execution after lawyers for four inmates out of appeals asked them to postpone deaths until after Christmas and New Year’s. The justices typically issue notices on Fridays because it gives the maximum amount of time of 28 days […]

19 minutes ago

A sign directs the way to a polling place at Marina Park Community Center on Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024,...

Associated Press

California voters reject measure that would have banned forced prison labor

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California voters have rejected a measure on the November ballot that would have amended the state constitution to ban forced prison labor. The constitution already prohibits so-called involuntary servitude, but an exception allows it to be used as a punishment for crime. That exemption became a target of criminal justice advocates […]

20 minutes ago

Associated Press

4 charged in Detroit street shooting that left 2 dead, 5 wounded

DETROIT (AP) — Four people have been charged in a shooting at an outdoor gathering in Detroit that left two people dead and five others wounded. Johnny Lee Marsh III, 25, Eladeo Garcia, 22, and Alfonso Anaya, 18, were arraigned Saturday on first-degree murder, assault with intent to murder and other charges, the Wayne County […]

26 minutes ago

Associated Press

A list of mass killings in the United States this year

The latest mass killing in the U.S. happened Sunday in Wichita, Kansas, after police found the bodies of four people and the suspected shooter inside three separate homes. It is the country’s 34th mass killing this year, according to a database maintained by The Associated Press and USA Today in partnership with Northeastern University. Wichita […]

45 minutes ago

FILE - President Donald Trump, center, sits with retired Army Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg, right, at Tru...

Associated Press

Trump is likely to name a loyalist as Pentagon chief after first-term tumult

WASHINGTON (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump’s choice for defense secretary is still up in the air, but it is a sure bet he will look to reshape the Pentagon and pick a loyalist following his tumultuous first term. Five men held the job as Pentagon chief only to resign, be fired or serve briefly as […]

1 hour ago

Jury convicts former DEA agent of obstruction but fails to reach verdict on Buffalo bribery charges