Malone, Galardi defense rests case after short four days

Friday, July 1, 2005 | 8:55 a.m.

SUN STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS

SAN DIEGO -- The defense rested Thursday in the federal corruption trial of two San Diego city councilmen, a council aide and a Las Vegas strip-club lobbyist.

Closing arguments were expected to begin next week and the jury may begin deliberations by July 11.

The trial of former Clark County commissioner Lance Malone, who lobbied for strip-club owner Michael Galardi, San Diego Councilmen Ralph Inzunza and Michael Zucchet and council aide David Cowan began May 10. The trial was expected to drag on into the summer.

It unexpectedly wrapped up after two months when the defense finished its entire case in four days.

The case is a parallel to a federal probe in Las Vegas expected to go to trial early next year.

Malone and three fellow Clark County commissioners are charged with taking bribes from Galardi. Mary Kincaid-Chauncey and Dario Herrera maintain their innocence. Erin Kenny has, like Galardi and Galardi's lieutenant John D'Intino, pleaded guilty and is assisting the government.

The connection to the Clark County Commission is not the only Las Vegas link for the case, and prosecutors have tried to emphasize the origin of Galardi, his cash and his connections. Galardi ran three Las Vegas strip clubs before the federal indictments forced him out of the business in Nevada.

Galardi had maintained friendly relationships with Malone and several prominent figures in the Las Vegas law enforcement community.

The San Diego defense, led by four attorneys representing the four defendants, rested after Clark County Deputy District Attorney Craig Hendricks disputed earlier testimony by Galardi, who has pleaded guilty and is cooperating with the federal prosecutors. Hendricks said Galardi's account of a meeting that including him, another then-deputy district attorney, Galardi and Malone.

Galardi told the jury earlier this month that Malone, while still serving as Clark County Commissioner in 1999, demanded a $5,000 a month cut of the strip-club business. Hendricks and Gary Guymon, who is now a public defender but then was also a deputy district attorney, attended the same meeting, Galardi said.

Hendricks, however, told the jury Thursday that he did not hear Malone make that demand. Guymon was also in San Diego, but was not called.

"We didn't need him," Malone's attorney, Dominic Gentile, said Thursday evening. "It would have been overkill. ... You do what you have to do and no more."

Hendricks' testimony came two days after another prominent figure in the legal law-enforcement community spoke.

During the course of his talks with government lawyers, Galardi had claimed that Eric Johnson, assistant U.S. attorney for Nevada, had visited his Las Vegas topless clubs and received gratuities -- drinks and lap dances -- there. Galardi said he recognized Johnson, who was the lead prosecutor on the Las Vegas investigation, when he went to talks to discuss a possible plea bargain.

As a result of Galardi's accusations, Johnson was removed from his lead position in a Las Vegas investigation into Galardi's possible links to organized crime. The charges also sparked a government investigation; Johnson's denial was ultimately deemed "credible," although the government also found Galardi's charge to be "consistent."

Johnson on Tuesday testified that he had never been in any of Galardi's clubs and never met the man until Galardi talked with government lawyers to cut the plea deal in mid-2003.

Gentile said the testimonies from people contradicting the former strip club owner "did more than poke holes" in Galardi's testimony.

"I'd say it stuck a fork in him," Gentile said.

A slim, legal-sized envelope holding $10,000 in $100 bills was the last piece of evidence entered in the case. Instead of a rebuttal, the prosecution used the envelope to show the dimensions of the package Malone allegedly carried to the councilmen in April 2003. Defense attorneys had suggested the package would have been visible in FBI surveillance videos of Malone at the time, but the former commissioner did not appear to be carrying anything at the time he visited council offices in downtown San Diego.

Prosecutors allege Malone and his boss Galardi gave the councilmen cash bribes and campaign contributions totaling $34,500 between July 2001 and April 2003.

The payments were intended to overturn a law that prevented dancers and patrons from touching each other during performances. The "no-touch" ordinance was hurting business at Galardi's all-nude club in San Diego. Galardi still operates the San Diego club.

Inzunza and Zucchet both deny receiving the cash Malone allegedly delivered in April 2003, along with another alleged $6,000 cash bribe a month earlier. Defense attorneys contend Galardi made up the cash bribes, which he did not disclose to prosecutors until more than a year after he cut a plea bargain.

They do acknowledge they received campaign contributions that Malone delivered, which they believed were legal.

A third indicted councilmen, Charles Lewis, died last year of liver disease.

His former chief of staff, Anthony Young, testified Thursday that Lewis was extremely upset when an aide escorted Malone to council chambers on March 26, 2003 as Lewis and Inzunza were attending a committee meeting.

Cowan, the aide, has been charged with providing false information to the FBI in the case.

According to Young, Lewis scolded Cowan and warned other staffers that it was inappropriate to personally escort a lobbyist to the council chamber. Young was elected in December to fill Lewis' vacant council seat.

In other testimony, three community activists from Inzunza's district said they consider the councilman to be honest, straightforward and attentive to the needs of ordinary people.

Christine Boughton, a family therapist who has known Zucchet since he was a teenager, said Zucchet is marked by "the absolute lack of guile."

Sun reporter Launce Rake and the Associated Press contributed to this story.