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A federal grand jury indicted Brian Rosenthal, a Pharaoh's employee since 2007 or 2008, on conspiracy to commit sex trafficking, lying to the FBI and concealing a felony.

"He was one of the people who allowed the crimes to happen over and over again," Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Tripi said at hearing Thursday as he asked for Rosenthal's pretrial detention.

U.S. Magistrate Judge H. Kenneth Schroeder Jr. declined to detain Rosenthal, saying he found no clear and convincing evidence that he is a danger to the community or a flight risk.

Joseph Barsuk was indicted on the sex-trafficking conspiracy count as well as sex trafficking by coercion, and he remains detained. His detention hearing is scheduled for next week. 

The indictment against the two stems from the Pharaoh's investigation, which already has the Cheektowaga club's owner facing up to life imprisonment on the charges lodged against him in the high-profile case.

The criminal charges against Rosenthal and Barsuk  have implications for Peter Gerace Jr., the owner of the club, whose charges include maintaining Pharaoh’s as a drug-involved premises where vulnerable young women were exploited through their drug addictions and coerced into engaging in commercial sex acts with him, his friends and associates.

Rosenthal has been a Pharaoh's  bouncer for the club's VIP room.

The club, Tripi said, employs vulnerable young women, some barely older than 18, who are "slowly groomed to a lifestyle of daily drug use and daily victimization."

"His job was to protect women," Tripi said of Rosenthal, who was supposed to enforce the stated rules barring any illegal activity.

"Those were the stated rules, but the reality was much different," Tripi said.

Customers were able to pay money for him "to turn a blind eye" to illicit activity in the VIP room, Tripi said.

Dancers were kissed, had their hair pulled or engaged in sex acts in the VIP room, Tripi said.

Attorney Herbert Greenman, who represents Rosenthal, called what he heard from Tripi at the detention hearing "a bunch of suspicions and surmised conjecture."

"When you hear one side from the government, you're left with an impression that doesn't fit the bill," Greenman told the judge.

To keep his client out of pretrial custody, Greenman had to counter the prosecution's description of Rosenthal as a danger to the community and a flight risk.

"There hasn't been one mention he's acted in a dangerous fashion or hurt someone," Greenman said. "The allegation is he didn't do what his job was supposed to be."

Rosenthal does not have a criminal record.

He will no longer work at Pharaoh's, Greenman said.

Rosenthal has been diagnosed with leukemia and receives treatment at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center, Greenman said.

"What he has to do is treat his leukemia," Greenman told the judge. "Jails are not made for people like him who need to be treated."

Greenman also countered the risk of flight issue. Federal authorities notified Rosenthal in 2021 that he was being investigated as part of the Pharaoh's probe.

"Did he flee the jurisdiction?" Greenman asked the judge. "Did he try to sell his home?"

No, Greenman said.

"He's been here ever since," he said.

Federal authorities have accused Gerace of bribing Joseph Bongiovanni, at the time a Drug Enforcement Administration agent, and conspiring to engage in drug trafficking and human trafficking at Pharaoh’s. Prosecutors have charged the now-retired Bongiovanni with accepting $250,000 in bribes from drug dealers whom he thought were associated with Italian organized crime and shielding them from arrest, as well as providing them with information about investigations and cooperating sources. Both have pleaded not guilty.

"That gentlemen's club virtually since its inception has been operated as a criminal enterprise," Tripi told the judge Thursday.

Rosenthal denied such acts happened when interviewed by the FBI. He told the FBI "he loved working there," Tripi said.

"He lied to the FBI. A grand jury found he lied to the FBI," Tripi added.

Both Rosenthal and Barsuk pleaded not guilty at their arraignment Wednesday.

Barsuk remains in the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service.  Barsuk will seek his pretrial release at a hearing next week.

The indictment accused both defendants of conspiring to recruit, entice, harbor and transport a person to engage in a commercial sex act while disregarding that force or threats of force and coercion were used against the person.

The indictment accused Rosenthal of lying to special agents of the FBI on June 18, 2020, by denying that sex acts ever occurred in the VIP rooms or elsewhere in the club. He also allegedly falsely denied seeing any of the acts even though he "then and there well knew sex acts had occurred" in the VIP rooms and area of Pharaoh's.

The indictment accused Rosenthal of concealing the felonies "by making false, fraudulent and fictitious statements" and did not alert authorities to the alleged crimes.

The count of sex trafficking by coercion against Barsuk includes the terms "patronize" and "solicit" among his actions, indicating he may have been a Pharaoh's customer – not an employee.