Four of six defendants charged in federal conspiracy case accept plea deals
by: Daniel Telvock WIVB June 5, 2026
https://www.wivb.com/news/four-of-six-defendants-charged-in-federal-conspiracy-case-accept-plea-deals/
The case involves the fatal overdose of a government witness, Crystal Quinn, who was expected to testify against Peter Gerace, the former owner of Pharoah’s Gentlemen’s Club, at his sex-and-drug trafficking trial in 2024. A jury ultimately convicted Gerace on eight counts.
ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WIVB) — A federal judge has rejected key evidence prosecutors sought to present in a conspiracy case, finding it did not support their claim that a government witness feared for her life in the days prior to her fatal overdose, which prevented her from testifying against her longtime friend in a sex-and-drug trafficking trial.
That decision, however, may not matter after four of the six defendants accepted plea deals Friday in Rochester.
Crystal Quinn died of a fentanyl overdose in August 2023, about 15 months before she was expected to testify against Peter Gerace, the former owner of Pharoah’s Gentlemen’s Club, where she once worked.
In December 2024, a jury convicted Gerace on eight counts, including sex-and-drug trafficking, witness tampering, bribing a former DEA agent, and maintaining a drug-involved business. He was sentenced in May to 25 years in prison.
Quinn was initially listed as a defense witness for Gerace but later agreed to cooperate with the government.
Prosecutors said Gerace preyed on younger exotic dancers by exploiting their drug habits by supplying them with cocaine or painkillers and introducing others to those drugs that caused their crippling addictions. Once Gerace had control over the dancers, prosecutors said he trafficked the dancers to friends and wealthy strip club patrons.
In the conspiracy case, prosecutors allege Gerace, John Ermin – identified as the national leader of the Outlaws Motorcycle Club — Howard Hinkle Jr., and Simon Gogolack conspired to prevent Quinn from testifying against Gerace. Gogolack is the only defendant charged with providing Quinn the fentanyl that prosecutors said caused Quinn’s death.
Two others, Frank Knight and Michael Roncone, are charged with providing federal agents with false information.
On Friday, Ermin, Hinkle, Knight and Roncone accepted plea deals just days before jury selection is scheduled to start. It remains unclear if Gerace and Gogolack will proceed to trial, which is scheduled to start during the third week of this month.
The disputed evidence included text messages Quinn sent and a two-second video on her phone. Prosecutors argued the evidence showed Quinn was under duress days prior to her fatal overdose.
In the early morning hours of July 28, 2023, Quinn was at Gogolack’s home in Wellsville. Court records state she sent Gogolack numerous frantic texts while he was at Knight’s home on the same street.
Beginning at 5:32 a.m., Quinn also sent texts to a friend’s inactive phone number. In those texts, Quinn claimed she overheard Gogolack speaking with a biker and reported seeing red lights – which prosecutors suggested were laser sights from firearms – pointed at her through a window at Gogolack’s house. In another text, Quinn claimed five women were “jumping me now,” an incident defense attorneys said never occurred.
Prosecutors also cited grand jury testimony from Gogolack’s father, who said his son told him about “the lasers” and how Quinn “was so terrified that she literally went outside and started screaming if you’re going to shoot me, get it over with.”
U.S. District Court Chief Judge Elizabeth Wolford ruled Tuesday that some of Quinn’s texts made no sense and others contradicted each other. The judge noted one of Quinn’s texts appears to suggest Gogolack’s belief that she was delusional from a day of heavy drug use.
Regarding the testimony of Gogolack’s father, Wolford said there is no evidence his son or Quinn could identify anyone pointing red lasers at her.
Prosecutors also wanted to include a two-second video found on Quinn’s phone of trees and a street, which they said captured her saying, “scumbag mother******.” They said the video, when viewed with the other evidence, proves Quinn was in fear of her life.
“It’s just a video of some woods,” Gogolack’s attorney, Nick Texido, said during a hearing on May 29.
Wolford agreed, writing that the video shows “absolutely nothing occurring” and was recorded around the same time Quinn was texting the expired phone number of a friend claiming five girls were jumping her.
“But no bikers, red beams, or anything relevant is depicted in the video,” Wolford said in her decision.
Wolford also said admitting the full set of texts would run afoul of U.S. Court of Appeals 2nd Circuit instructions against allowing out-of-court statements based on conjecture or heightened emotions without credible proof. She compared it to allowing a witness who heard gunshots to testify about who fired the gun without ever seeing the shooter.
“The government urges the Court to consider the totality of this evidence and conclude that it has met the preponderance standard to show that Quinn personally observed a biker confrontation on the date in question sufficient to lay the foundation for the admission of the text messages …,” Wolford said in her decision. “The Court is unable to do so.”
Wolford left open the possibility of allowing a limited portion of the messages at trial, but said it is too early to decide.
Jury selection is scheduled to begin on June 8, but some of the defendants will avoid trial after accepting plea deals Friday in Rochester.
Roncone, who the government said is the former president of a Rare Breeds Motorcycle Club chapter in Wellsville, accepted a plea to making a false statement to federal agents by denying drugs were in his home. The maximum sentence is six months.
Ermin accepted a plea to misprision of a felony for attempting to conceal a crime. The maximum sentence is three years in prison.
Hinkle accepted a plea to maintaining a place for the purpose of manufacturing, distributing and using cannabis and possession of firearms in the furtherance of drug trafficking. He faces a maximum of 20 years in prison on the first charge and 60-months to life for the second charge, which would run consecutive to whatever sentence he receives for the cannabis charge.
Knight accepted a plea to possession of cannabis, with a maximum sentence of one year.
What remains unclear is whether Gerace and Gogolack will proceed to trial. Their attorneys could not be reached for comment. The trial is scheduled to start during the third week of June.