Jack Galardi loses license to sell liquor

Dan Kulin

Wednesday, March 23, 2005 | 11:21 a.m.

A Las Vegas topless club had to cork its bottles Tuesday when the Clark County Commissioners voted against giving strip club mogul Jack Galardi a liquor license for his Leopard's Lounge.

Galardi refused to comment after the meeting, but his attorney, Dominic Gentile, said they would fight the decision in either district or federal court.

Gentile said the topless club would stop serving alcohol and could stay open, although whether it would still had to be decided.

Gentile said he was very surprised by the commissioners' decision, but added that "right now he has the wrong name for this county."

Galardi is the father of Michael Galardi, who in September 2003 pleaded guilty to political corruption charges for allegedly bribing elected officials in San Diego and four former Clark County commissioners.

The commissioners, who were acting as the County Liquor and Gaming Licensing Board, voted 6-0 Tuesday to deny Jack Galardi's request for a liquor license for Leopard's Lounge.

Commissioner Yvonne Atkinson Gates, chair of the board, and Commissioner Tom Collins said the alleged actions of the younger Galardi had no bearing on their decision. They said their decision was based on Metro Police's report that solicitation of prostitution and illegal touching between strippers and patrons occurred at Jack Galardi's clubs in Florida and Georgia.

Galardi went before the liquor board to secure a liquor license for the Leopard's Lounge, one of three local strip the clubs -- Cheetahs and Jaguars are the others -- that Michael Galardi was at least a part-owner of until selling his interests to his father after the younger Galardi pleaded guilty to the bribery charges.

During the Tuesday hearing, Gentile argued that the board should judge Galardi on how Leopard's Lounge has operated during the last year the elder Galardi has been in charge, and not the performance of clubs in other states.

Gentile said Leopard's Lounge dancers have received one citation and one warning within the last year, "and there is no club in Clark County that has a better record than that."

Gentile also addressed some of the allegations contained in a Metro Police report on Galardi by saying that some of the laws allegedly broken were unconstitutional, and Galardi was not personally criminally charged for the alleged illegal activity at his clubs in West Virginia, Georgia, or Florida.

The Metro Police report also mentioned Galardi's 1971 conviction in Los Angeles on charges of conspiracy, aiding and abetting another to break into a post office, and receiving stolen postal orders.

The police report also questioned why Jack Galardi doesn't go by his apparent given name of Harold Jack Gagliardi.

The county Business License Department recommended the board deny Galardi's request for a liquor license based on "consistent patterns of regulatory violations" in other states.

Galardi's other topless club in the county, Jaguars, is run by former Metro Police Officers Randy Miller and Richard Gonzales. In January, the commissioners allowed Galardi to continue owning the Jaguars building and the former police officers to continue running the strip club, after being assured that Galardi had no involvement with the club's operations.

Cheetahs is within the Las Vegas city limits and so under the jurisdiction of the Las Vegas City Council and not the commissioners' jurisdiction like Jaguars and the Leopard Lounge are.

In January 2004, the Las Vegas City Council fined Cheetah's parent company, La Fuente, just over $1 million for the criminal acts committed by Michael Galardi while he was a 40 percent owner of La Fuente.

A month later, Jack Galardi, who by then was the sole owner of the company, paid the fine in return for the council dropping additional charges against the liquor license for Cheetahs.

The Leopard Lounge appeared open Tuesday afternoon, but club staff would not comment on the situation.