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A suspect in the overdose death of a witness in the Pharaoh’s strip club sex- and drug-trafficking case was restrained during a recent U.S. District Court proceeding in Rochester after the U.S. Marshals Service reported to the judge that he tried to harm himself. A judge will review the probation file of Crystal Quinn, the witness in the case of former Pharoah's owner Peter Gerace who died before she could testify against him. Chief U.S. District Judge Elizabeth Wolford wasted no time Thursday delving into the Pharaoh's witness retaliation case, making rulings and setting deadlines in her Rochester courtroom only a week after taking over the high-profile case. A federal judge based in Rochester will assume the Pharaoh's witness death case. The Department of Justice, under U.S. Attorney General Pamela Bondi, took a fresh look but reaffirmed an earlier decision not to seek the death penalty in the local case of a dead federal witness. Pharaoh's strip club owner Peter Gerace Jr. told The Buffalo News that he hopes the Trump administration officials who recently took control of the Justice Department will re-examine his case and take action to overturn his convictions. The Trump administration's move to revive the federal death penalty could affect the local case against strip club owner Peter Gerace Jr. and three others whom prosecutors allege played a role in the death of federal witness Crystal Quinn. Scott Barnes, 56, a union electrician whom prosecutors have described as a national enforcer for the Outlaws, has been in jail since December 2023. John T. “Tommy O” Ermin sought to be released based in part on a co-defendant's text messages that his defense lawyer argued "shows something completely different" than what prosecutors said to Chief U.S. District Judge Elizabeth A. Wolford that prompted her in January to order him detained as a danger to the community. A federal judge has vacated another judge's ruling that prosecutors acted in "bad faith" by missing a court-ordered deadline to turn over to defense lawyers information about witnesses and evidence in the drug overdose death of Crystal Quinn. The Wellsville man charged in the overdose death of Crystal Quinn twice before refused to provide a sample. U.S. District Judge Lawrence Vilardo on Friday set a Jan. 27 trial date for Scott Barnes, 56, after granting his lawyer's motion to sever his case from those of his co-defendants. A federal judge said he would decide "in short order" how defense attorneys can access and use evidence collected during the investigation into the overdose death of witness Crystal Quinn in the Pharaoh’s strip club case. U.S. Magistrate Judge Jeremiah J. McCarthy declined to reopen John T. “Tommy O” Ermin's detention hearing after listening to contrasting portrayals of the Lancaster man accused of being part of a conspiracy that caused the death of Crystal Quinn. Over the objections of a prosecutor, U.S. Magistrate Judge Jeremiah J. McCarthy on Monday ordered the release of Howard Hinkle Jr. under strict conditions, including home confinement and electronic monitoring. U.S. District Judge Lawrence Vilardo set deadlines for court filings through Oct. 11. "They violated my court order and did so intentionally," U.S. Magistrate Judge Jeremiah J. McCarthy said at a court proceeding Friday. "They did not play totally straight with me." The indictments of six people who federal prosecutors accuse of playing a role in the drug overdose death of government witness Crystal Quinn could be in jeopardy after a judge found that the U.S. Attorney's Office acted in "bad faith" in missing a deadline to turn over information about their cases to defense lawyers. Federal prosecutors have raised the specter of witness intimidation, tampering and even an assassination of a judge as they seek limits on how defense attorneys can access and use evidence collected during the investigation into the death of a witness in the Pharaoh's strip club case. Peter Gerace Jr. accuses Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph M. Tripi, the FBI and other law enforcement officials of putting extreme pressure on State Supreme Court Judge John Michalski and former Pharaoh’s strip club employee Crystal Quinn and causing them to kill themselves. Simon Gogolack, Howard Hinkle Jr. and John T. “Tommy O” Ermin each face witness tampering, retaliation and obstruction of justice conspiracy charges. All have pleaded not guilty. And all will remain jailed for now. A magistrate judge approved federal payment for the defense of John T. “Tommy O” Ermin, who the U.S. Attorney’s office has identified as the international president of the Outlaws. Federal prosecutors say they will not seek the death penalty while building their case against strip club owner Peter Gerace Jr. and three others they allege played a role in the death of federal witness Crystal Quinn. With 441 chapters in 43 countries all over the world – from Peru to Siberia to Australia to the United States – the Outlaws are widely considered one of the world’s largest and most dangerous motorcycle clubs. Attorneys versed in death penalty defense are called “learned counsel,” and only a handful work in Western New York. Sitting in jail did not stop Simon Gogolack from arranging drug deals, prosecutors say. The Wellsville man charged in the overdose death of Crystal Quinn used another inmate's telephone account to make calls to an accomplice on the outside, according to prosecutors. The U.S. Attorney’s Office is also seeking the forfeiture of the home in Wellsville where government witness Crystal Quinn died of a drug overdose Aug. 1. A 28-count superseding indictment unsealed Tuesday names six people – including Pharaoh's Gentlemen's Club owner Peter Gerace Jr. and Outlaws Motorcycle Club national leader John Ermin – as part of a conspiracy to obstruct justice by targeting a federal witness for retaliation. Around the time Simon Gogolack reported the overdose death of Crystal Quinn – a former exotic dancer who had agreed to cooperate in the federal government’s sex- and drug-trafficking case against strip club owner Peter Gerace Jr. – he was trying to break into the hit-man business, according to the chief prosecutor on the case. Chief U.S. District Judge Elizabeth A. Wolford reversed a magistrate judge's December order that had set conditions for John Ermin's release. "It's the government's position that Crystal Quinn was murdered, and it was staged to look like an overdose," Assistant U.S. Attorney Nicholas Cooper said in court Thursday. Items seized from the Outlaws clubhouse and homes lead to the unmistakable conclusion that members of the club will harm informants, Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Tripi said in court. John Ermin, who has been identified by prosecutors as general manager of the Pharaoh’s strip club, was charged with possessing firearms while being a user of controlled substances. The Pharaoh’s strip club witness who died of a fentanyl overdose this summer was found to have 400 times a lethal dose of the potent opioid drug, a prosecutor said during a court proceeding Friday. A government witness in the Pharaoh’s strip club case was warned days before her death about a bounty on her life, according to a federal prosecutor and documents filed in U.S. District Court. A new indictment has added two kidnapping and six witness tampering charges against an Allegany County man under federal investigation since a government witness in the Pharaoh’s strip club case turned up dead in his home. Assistant U.S. Attorney Nicholas Cooper told a judge that his office intends to file witness tampering charges against Simon P. Gogolack 39, of Wellsville. A Southern Tier man with a history of drug-related charges has become entangled in the FBI’s probe into the death of a government witness in the Pharaoh’s strip club case. The FBI is investigating the Aug. 1 death of Crystal Quinn, 37, at a friend's home in the Allegany County Village of Wellsville. FBI agents executed a search warrant at an Allegany County home last week while investigating the death of a former exotic dancer who was going to testify as a prosecution witness at the trial of strip club owner Peter Gerace Jr.
