Strip club manager agrees to cooperate with prosecution

Wednesday, Sept. 17, 2003 | 9:07 a.m.

An indicted San Diego strip club manager has agreed to cooperate with federal prosecutors in their quest to prove that three San Diego city councilmen illegally accepted money from Las Vegas businessman Michael Galardi and his associates.

John D'Intino, manager of Galardi's Cheetahs club in the San Diego suburb of Kearny Mesa, pleaded guilty earlier this month to a felony charge of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. D'Intino's plea was in connection with allegations that in exchange for $25,000 the politicians attempted to amend the city's "no touch" regulation of exotic dancers and their customers.

In a four-page addendum to D'Intino's plea agreement that was unsealed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in San Diego, it was revealed that he has agreed to testify for the prosecution.

Galardi, who also pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and owns strip clubs in Southern Nevada, has also agreed to cooperate with federal authorities and will be sentenced in January. Both men can receive sentences of up to five years in prison.

"Defendant has expressed a desire to provide substantial assistance to the government in the investigation and prosecution of others," the addendum states. "Defendant agrees to be interviewed by federal and state law enforcement agents and attorneys and to tell everything defendant knows about every person involved presently or in the past in corruption of public officials, firearms offenses, as well as other violations of law.

"Defendant agrees to provide statements under penalty of perjury and to testify before any federal or state grand jury, and at any pretrial, trial or post-trial proceedings."

San Diego City Councilmen Ralph Inzunza, Michael Zucchet and Charles Lewis all have pleaded not guilty to the charges and are scheduled to return to court on Oct. 23 for a motion hearing and trial setting. Former Clark County Commissioner Lance Malone, a consultant and lobbyist for Galardi, also has pleaded not guilty to charges of wire fraud, extortion and racketeering and is scheduled to return to court on the same date.

"From what I am able to understand, Mr. D'Intino is probably going to be helpful to Mr. Malone," Dominic Gentile, Malone's Las Vegas attorney, said today. Gentile would not elaborate.

Malone and Galardi, who have been implicated in a parallel political corruption probe in Southern Nevada, remain free on bond but have travel restrictions.

In the case of Malone, those travel restrictions -- originally confined to Southern Nevada and the San Diego area -- were expanded Tuesday by U.S. Magistrate Judge Nita Stormes to all of Nevada, California and Utah, Gentile said.

Gentile confirmed that Malone had expressed interest in taking his family to Disneyland, which is in Anaheim, Calif.

"The original travel restrictions were ridiculous," Gentile said.

The Southern Nevada probe has also implicated Clark County Commissioner Mary Kincaid-Chauncey, former Commissioners Erin Kenny and Dario Herrera and former Las Vegas City Councilman Michael McDonald as either targets or subjects.