Trial for wife of convicted drug dealer and Worcester restaurateur pushed to next year

Due to a scheduling conflict, the trial for the wife of a convicted drug dealer and former Worcester restaurateur has been postponed to next year.

Stacey Gala, the wife of Kevin Perry, the former owner of The Usual on Shrewsbury Street and Blackstone Tap on Water Street, will be tried beginning Feb. 3 and not this week as previously scheduled. 

The trial, expected to last nine days, was originally scheduled to begin Monday. However, court filings last week indicated U.S. District Court Judge Timothy Hillman would not be able to hear the case until July 24, but the judge and defense attorney aren’t available for the next two weeks. 

Gala is charged with conspiracy to commit money laundering after authorities say she took some of her husband’s drug money to reopen Shrewsbury Street restaurant as The Chameleon in summer 2017, but that business lasted only several months as authorities began building their case.

Both restaurants were owned by the couple, but they were seized when Perry was arrested on drug and money laundering charges in spring 2017. 

Gala was allowed to reopen the restaurant but is alleged to have done so with the help of coworker Joseph Herman and more than $500,000 of Perry’s hidden drug money, including $250,000 hidden in the Shrewsbury Street restaurant’s basement. 

Perry was sentenced to 14 years in prison after pleading guilty in May to money laundering, aggravated cash structuring, lying on a loan application and distributing fentanyl. 

Both were charged in February 2018, but Herman has since pleaded guilty and is scheduled to be sentenced on Nov. 1. 

Another individual, Christopher Slavinskas, who authorities say helped hide the drug money, has pleaded guilty and will be sentenced Nov. 4.