Malone tries to get bribery case in San Diego dismissed

Jace Radke

Friday, March 4, 2005 | 9:14 a.m.

Former Clark County Commissioner Lance Malone is expected to appear in federal court in San Diego Monday for a motion hearing that will determine if the political corruption case against him continues or is dismissed.

Malone's attorney, Dominic Gentile, said there are many issues to be argued and that there is a chance the hearing could last longer than a day.

The motion to dismiss is based on allegations of prosecutorial misconduct and is scheduled to be heard by U.S. District Judge Jeffrey T.Miller beginning at 9 a.m. Monday.

The motion, filed in January, claims that federal authorities engineered a criminal enterprise to entrap Malone and two San Diego city councilmen also charged in the case.

Malone is facing federal political corruption charges in both San Diego and Las Vegas in two seperate cases. In both cases Malone is charged with acting as a middleman for former strip club owner Michael Galardi to trade money and gifts for political influence.

The motion in the San Diego case alleges that federal and local investigators introduced the idea of bribing a police officer in San Diego, and that Malone had no knowledge of the bribery while acting as a lobbyist for Galardi.

Gentile's motion goes on to allege that an investigator, Scott Scarborough, working for Galardi, contacted Malone last year after the indictments in the cases had been handed down, in an attempt to coerce Malone to change his plea in San Diego from guilty to not guilty.

Malone's attorney, Dominic Gentile, met with Scarborough on April 14, 2004, in Las Vegas for less than 30 minutes and was told that federal prosecutors in San Diego had pressured Galardi to try to get Malone to change his plea, according to a declaration filed with the motion by Gentile.

Prosecutors with the U.S. attorney's office for the Southern District of California have filed counter motions asking Miller to allow the case to go to trial.

Gentile's motion does not specifically accuse government prosecutors of misconduct, but does ask for an evidentiary hearing to determine if Scarborough was telling the truth.

Galardi has pleaded guilty in both the San Diego case and the Las Vegas case. The San Diego case is scheduled to go to trial on May 3, while the Las Vegas case is scheduled to go to trial Sept. 13.

In the Las Vegas case, former County Commissioners Mary Kincaid-Chauncey and Dario Herrera have also been charged with taking bribes and using their influence to benefit Galardi's clubs.

Former County Commissioner Erin Kenny was also charged in the Las Vegas case, but like Galardi she has pleaded guilty and has agreed to cooperate with the government's prosecution of Malone, Herrera and Kincaid-Chauncey.