Latest news with #Bongiovanni
Yahoo
15-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
If Gilbert wants to hide public records, it's going about it all wrong
Perhaps the citizen naysayers are right. Perhaps this is all nefarious and underhanded — these Gilbert Town Council members asking sharp questions about public information requests. After all, they represent a town that fell asleep on the 'Gilbert Goons,' the gang of thugs who violently preyed on mostly young men in Gilbert and surrounding communities. They're also on a council that has been at war with itself, filled with angry insults and a half-dozen ethics complaints. Now, some of those same town leaders are asking about the so-called 'frequent flyers,' the citizens or even non-citizens who keep requesting public information from the town — detailed statistics, email exchanges, text messages, police records, you name it. The requests for public information are so vast today and rising that the town now must budget $2.1 million a year simply to process them all, town Clerk Chaveli Herrera said. In 2024, Gilbert responded to some 27,328 total record requests across multiple departments — more than Mesa, a city nearly twice its size, The Arizona Republic's Maritza Dominguez reports. Some Gilbert citizens didn't like the questions asked by Council Members Chuck Bongiovanni and Jim Torgeson, suggesting there was something vaguely intimidating about them. Interestingly, Bongiovanni and Torgeson both won election promising greater transparency on a council riven with controversy. I've never interviewed these men. Don't know them. So, I went to the video of their March 25 council study session to see what all the fuss was about. What I saw at the start was a town attorney and clerk tell the council that there is almost no give in the Arizona Public Record statutes. Anybody can request information, and the town must provide it. There are exceptions, but they are few. And they had better pass muster with the courts, Town Attorney Chris Payne said. This is a healthy system in a democracy that depends on informed citizens electing town and city leaders. Opinion: Surprise! The First Amendment is against the rules in this Arizona city But the system can be abused, and in Gilbert and across the United States there are cranks and conspiracy theorists who like to put town halls through expensive exercises of mass data collection and processing. Some people make broad requests for official email exchanges over many years — all of which require sorting and eventually vetting by the town's legal arm. An example was a request last August for 3,100 emails with 730 attachments (some with multiple pages), Payne said. That took about 40 hours and $2,000 in staff time. And it was hardly unusual. In fact, that request was small compared to others that are broader and require many times more staff hours, Payne said. The town attorney's office spends upwards of $350,000 a year just to vet public information queries, he said. Hearing all this, Bongiovanni asked an essential question: 'Gilbert is a very prosperous town, and we can only afford $10,000 to help seniors and people on fixed income pay their water bill. And yet we can spend $400,000, $500,000 on wasteful FOIAs that we know are just being submitted as harassment.' Neither Bongiovanni nor Torgeson were talking about mainstream media queries. They were referring to serial abusers of public information requests. If this was an underhanded effort to turn off the spigot of information to the public, Torgeson sure didn't sound like a censorship fiend. He asked the town attorney if there was a way to just grant people access to all of the council's communications. Could they be stored in a clearinghouse with public access, so Gilbert could save millions on processing and vetting? 'I have no problem opening up every email, every phone call, every text. I want the abuse of the tax dollars to stop. Because these few people are costing us hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars,' Torgeson said. 'If it can be done for a reasonable number and just open everything up, I have nothing to hide, and I'm sure no one here has anything to hide. I want to stop the abuse.' Payne said, 'We'll look at that.' The information would still need to be vetted. I'm sure Torgeson knows that. But he didn't sound like a guy with secrets to keep. Nor did Bongiovanni. This looked more like a two-man DOGE session to ferret out waste, fraud and abuse. Phil Boas is an editorial columnist with The Arizona Republic. Email him at This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Gilbert councilmen want to stop waste. That's no conspiracy | Opinion
Yahoo
22-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Pharaoh's owner's attorneys argue he has right to jailhouse interviews
BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) — Attorneys for the convicted owner of Pharaoh's Gentlemen's Club, Peter Gerace, said the government's effort to block him from doing jailhouse interviews would be an 'unwarranted restraint' on his First Amendment rights. On Feb. 3, federal prosecutors requested a gag order on Gerace after learning he requested interviews with reporters at the Chautauqua County Jail, where he remains in custody. Their government's concerns focused on three issues: Gerace could violate a protective order that safeguards sensitive information, he allegedly planned to discuss matters about the presiding judge and prosecutors, and he could use the media to 'threaten or harass victims and witnesses' or use coded messages for nefarious purposes. Prosecutors said a jailhouse interview with Gerace would pose an 'unacceptable risk to the sordid history of witness retaliation and obstruction committed by, and at the behest of, Gerace.' But Gerace's lawyers mostly disagreed. Eric Soehnlein and Mark Foti, Gerace's attorneys, said he has a First Amendment right to speak with the media as long as he follows United States Marshal Service (USMS) policies, and avoids violating a protective order that safeguards sensitive information. The USMS policy requires either Gerace or the reporter to get permission from various people, including the presiding judge, the federal prosecutors, his attorneys, and the Chautauqua County jail. 'To the extent the government identifies legitimate concerns regarding Gerace's potential statements to the media, the proposed gag order does nothing to legitimately address those concerns,' Gerace's attorneys said in their response filed Tuesday. On Dec. 27, 2024, a jury convicted Gerace on eight of nine charges, including sex and drug trafficking, maintaining Pharaoh's as a drug-involved business, and two counts of witness tampering. He faces a maximum sentence of life in prison. Specifically, the jury found the evidence indicated Gerace exploited drug-addicted exotic dancers to traffic them to friends and affluent customers, allowed rampant drug dealing at the club, and ignored heavy drug use among employees and patrons. The jury also found Gerace guilty of bribing former DEA agent Joseph Bongiovanni, a childhood friend, in exchange for inside information that shielded Gerace and associates from law enforcement investigations for at least a decade. On Oct. 10, a separate jury convicted Bongiovanni on seven of 11 charges, including conspiracy to defraud the United States and distribute drugs, and four counts of obstruction of justice. He faces up to 20 years in prison. But the jury did not convict Bongiovanni of accepting bribes. Gerace's attorneys said it is unclear what the media wants to discuss with Gerace, but prosecutors made assumptions about what they believe he might talk about. 'The government may not like the content of the speech, but the speech itself is permissible. It cannot be lawfully restrained,' his attorneys said. News 4 Investigates had a brief phone conversation with Gerace prior to the request for the gag order. He said he wanted to discuss testimony from witnesses, alleged ethical transgressions by prosecutors, government funds provided to some witnesses for rent and other expenses, and potential sentencing deals some hoped for by testifying. For example, Gerace's former cellmate, Kevin Hughes, had a 'cooperation agreement' with the government. On Dec. 10, Hughes testified he agreed to share details of conversations he had with Gerace in the hope of getting a reduced sentence. Hughes also testified Gerace talked about sex parties at his Clarence home, referenced a dancer who overdosed, and told him, 'You'd be surprised what they'd do for a little bit of product.' The trial included lengthy debate over whether Hughes and another inmate should be allowed to testify. Gerace's attorneys implied the inmates intentionally sought information from Gerace at the behest of federal prosecutors. Ultimately, the judge allowed both inmates to testify. Hughes pleaded guilty in May 2022 to narcotics conspiracy by assisting a drug-trafficking operation. State troopers searched his car and seized more than 19 pounds of methamphetamine, 7 pounds of fentanyl, 5 pounds of cocaine, and cannabis products. He faced between 20 years and life in prison. Almost a month after Gerace's conviction, U.S. District Court Judge John Sinatra sentenced Hughes to time served (17 months) and two years of supervised probation. Gerace's attorneys said the government cannot restrain him from making comments about witnesses who testified against him, because 'the government chose to elicit witness testimony in open court, and the witnesses chose to testify in open court — whether it be for pecuniary gain or for benefits in their own cases.' Prosecutors have until Friday night to respond. Thereafter, U.S. District Court Judge Lawrence Vilardo could schedule oral arguments or render a decision. Dan Telvock is an award-winning investigative producer and reporter who has been part of the News 4 team since 2018. See more of his work here and follow him on Twitter. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
