A federal grand jury has indicted an Amherst police detective, accusing him of making a false statement to the FBI about his dealings with Peter Gerace Jr., the Cheektowaga strip club owner who faces bribery, sex- and drug-trafficking charges.
The indictment mirrors the criminal complaint the U.S. Attorney’s Office filed against Gregory Trotter in November.
Trotter pleaded not guilty at his arraignment Thursday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Jeremiah J. McCarthy.
After filing the criminal complaint in November, prosecutors did not seek to put Trotter into custody but Trotter agreed to relinquish his firearms and surrender his passport. He was released after his arraignment with the same conditions. The Amherst Police Department said in November that it had put Trotter on paid administrative leave.
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Trotter provided Gerace his personal cellphone number for Gerace to use to contact him, and the two had professional and personal contacts between February 2017 and April 2019, according to the indictment.
On March 4, 2019, Gerace filed a police report with the Amherst Police Department regarding the alleged theft of a Rolex watch. Gerace reported the watch was stolen by a former dancer at Gerace’s Pharaoh’s Gentlemen’s Club who was a former intimate partner of his, according to the federal complaint.
On April 9, 2019, the former employee was arrested and brought to the Amherst Police Department in the early morning hours.
After her arrest, a supervisor at the Police Department, who does not have a relationship with Gerace, assessed she had information that would potentially be relevant to federal agents. So the supervisor contacted a federal agent, and federal agents interviewed her at a local Police Department.
She provided information that was relevant to the ongoing federal investigation into Gerace and Pharaoh’s, according to the complaint.
Shortly after speaking with federal agents, her cooperation with federal agents was discovered, and she was assaulted by a former Pharaoh’s employee and friend of Gerace, according to agents.
As federal agents investigated how her cooperation came to be known, they identified Trotter as a detective with a relationship with Gerace and who had been involved in the stolen watch arrest.
Within hours of filing the police report with Amherst police, Gerace texted Trotter informing him that Gerace had filed the police report and asking if he had seen it, according to the indictment.
Between March 6 and April 9 of 2019, Trotter and another Amherst detective investigated the reported theft. During this time, Trotter used his personal cellphone to exchange text messages with Gerace regarding the status of the investigation, according to the indictment.
On April 9, 2019, Trotter participated in the arrest of the former Pharaoh’s dancer over the alleged theft of the Rolex watch.
Trotter and Gerace exchanged text messages regarding the arrest, according to the indictment. Trotter texted Gerace when the woman was in custody, responded to texts from Gerace regarding the arrest, and continued to exchange texts with Gerace regarding the status of the case and the criminal charges ultimately filed against her.
In February 2021, Gerace was indicted on federal charges unrelated to the alleged theft of the Rolex watch. Gerace is accused of bribing former Drug Enforcement Administration agent Joseph Bongiovanni, among other crimes.
In September 2022, the FBI interviewed Trotter regarding his relationship with Gerace and the Rolex watch investigation.
Trotter denied having contact with Gerace after January 2017 and said his involvement in the Rolex watch investigation was limited to taking a statement from Gerace, according to the indictment.
Trotter told FBI agents that Gerace had never reached out to him or contacted him regarding the investigation.
“As the defendant then and there well knew, the defendant did have contact with Gerace after January 2017; the defendant had been involved in the investigation into the theft of the Rolex watch beyond taking Gerace’s statement; and Gerace had contacted the defendant regarding the investigation into the theft of the Rolex watch,” according to the indictment.
Accompanying the criminal complaint in November was an affidavit by Jason A. Kammeraad, a special agent with the FBI’s Buffalo field office. Kammeraad said the investigation into Gerace has established that Gerace has substantial contacts in law enforcement, including at the federal, state and local level, and with members of the judiciary.
“The investigation has further determined that Gerace has at times attempted to improperly leverage these relationships,” Kammeraad said in his affidavit.
Federal investigators have worked to identify the nature and extent of Gerace’s contacts and communications with members of law enforcement and determine if any of them have shared information about incidents, law enforcement sensitive techniques, investigations, arrests or sensitive information with Gerace.
Patrick Lakamp can be reached at plakamp@buffnews.com