Columnist Jeff German: Following the Kenny money trail

Wednesday, Aug. 18, 2004 | 11:17 a.m.

With the campaign season heating up, it may be no coincidence that FBI agents are once more picking up the pace in their never-ending federal corruption investigation.

The star of the new show is Erin Kenny, the wheeler-dealer who masqueraded as a county commissioner from 1995 to 2003.

In July 2003 -- six months after she left office and after FBI agents confronted her with tape recordings of her betraying the public's trust -- Kenny pleaded guilty in federal court to accepting money under the table from topless nightclub mogul Michael Galardi.

She struck a deal to cooperate with agents in hopes of receiving a light sentence at the conclusion of the high-profile investigation.

Later, Galardi worked out a similar agreement with the FBI, and in November County Commissioner Mary Kincaid-Chauncey and former Commissioners Dario Herrera and Lance Malone were charged in a federal indictment with taking cash unlawfully from Galardi. All three are fighting the charges, and Kincaid-Chauncey is running for re-election.

The extent of what Kenny has told the FBI isn't known. But it is no secret that she was in a position to do plenty of damage to local developers who have been spreading money around town promoting a pro-growth agenda for years. Kenny, it turns out, was getting her share of that money.

So this is where the new phase of the FBI investigation is heading.

FBI agents have made some public moves recently that show they're trying to corroborate information Kenny has offered on the wealthy developers.

Last month agents requested records from the county relating to the County Commission's 2001 approval of a CVS Pharmacy at Desert Inn Road and Buffalo Drive. Commissioners, led by Kenny, changed the zoning against the wishes of neighbors to allow the pharmacy in the residential area.

Within the past week agents sent out wiretap notices to people overheard talking to Kenny during that time, which is an indication agents are prepared to hit the streets to do some talking of their own on this subject.

CVS is not a target of the investigation, but the FBI is trying to determine why the company bought the Desert Inn property at an inflated price and how a large sum of money wound up in Kenny's hands after the deal.

Agents, I'm told, also are trying to figure out the role of Don Davidson, a vice president of Triple Five Development Corp., in the land transaction.

Davidson's lawyer, Dominic Gentile, acknowledged that Davidson found the land for CVS, but he insisted his client did nothing wrong.

Not surprisingly Gentile doesn't have a high opinion of Kenny.

"This is a very intelligent and wily person who spent years lying to the public and getting away with it," he said. "She's going to say whatever is going to work out best for her."

FBI agents, Gentile said, will have to work extra hard to overcome her credibility problems on the witness stand.

From the looks of things, agents already are responding to that challenge.