Gregory J. Trotter, 49, of Buffalo, Erie County, New York, United States joined the U.S. Department of the Treasury as a customs inspector in 1996. He joined the police department of Amherst, Erie County in 1999.
While working as an Amherst Police Department detective, Trotter communicated with Peter G. Gerace Jr., 55, of Buffalo between February 2017 and April 2019. But when Federal Bureau of Investigation agents interviewed Trotter on September 30, 2022, he said his last interaction with Gerace was in January 2017.
Did Peter Gerace Jr. bribe Joseph Bongiovanni?
Gerace owned a strip club in Cheektowaga, Erie County called Pharaoh’s Gentlemen’s Club, where he allegedly conspired to engage in drug trafficking and sex trafficking. Joseph Bongiovanni, 59, of Tonawanda, Erie County served as a Drug Enforcement Administration special agent of the U.S. Department of Justice between 1998 and February 1, 2019.
From 2005 to 2019, Gerace allegedly bribed Bongiovanni. On September 5, 2023, they appeared in federal court and pleaded not guilty to all charges filed against them.
On November 28, 2023, a criminal complaint was filed in U.S. District court accusing Trotter of knowingly and willfully making materially false, fictitious or fraudulent statements. On December 5, 2023, he made his initial court appearance before U.S. Magistrate Judge Jeremiah J. McCarthy and agreed to surrender his passport and his firearms.
On April 25, 2024, Trotter was arraigned before McCarthy. The Amherst Police Department detective pleaded not guilty to the charged filed against him on November 28, 2023.
CONAN Daily 