Prosecutors open their case against LV’s Malone

Wednesday, May 11, 2005 | 10:58 a.m.

SAN DIEGO -- Federal prosecutors opened a political corruption trial Tuesday alleging a Las Vegas strip club owner and former Clark County commissioner bribed San Diego city councilmen to get them to loosen an ordinance restricting strippers' actions.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Paul Cook provided the government's opening salvo against former Clark County Commissioner Lance Malone and two sitting San Diego city councilmen, Ralph Inzunza and Michael Zucchet, and David Cowan, a city council aide to the late councilman Charles Lewis. Cook detailed numerous meetings among the defendants, Galardi, his manager of Cheetahs topless club in San Diego, John D'Intino, a police informant and a San Diego Police Department vice sergeant.

"For a few thousand dollars, the open and honest government was sold to a Las Vegas strip-club operator," Cook said in his opening statement. "This case is about scheming, deceiving and cheating ... This is a case about the corruption of the political process."

Galardi and D'Intino have pleaded guilty and are cooperating with the government in the San Diego case and in parallel indictments of Malone and two of his former colleagues on the Clark County Commission in Las Vegas. Former commission members Dario Herrera and Mary Kincaid-Chauncey are, like Malone, insisting that they are innocent of similar charges. Former commissioner Erin Kenny, however, has pleaded guilty and is cooperating with the federal prosecution.

Cook said Malone, a former police officer, accepted bribes from Galardi while a county commissioner and passed bribes to two other county commissioners. Then, after losing his only effort at re-election, Malone "went to work for Michael Galardi," Cook said.

Malone's lawyer, Dominic Gentile, said Tuesday following the opening statements that despite the fiery start of the San Diego trial, he is not positive that the Las Vegas indictments will make it to trial if the federal effort in California is unsuccessful. Although Gentile did not give an opening statement, which is expected to come today, his comments from outside the San Diego federal courthouse mirrored those already given by attorneys for Inzunza and Zucchet.

What the prosecutors are describing as evidence of conspiracy and public corruption are "a lot of purely legitimate methods and approaches being taken" to influence, but not buy, political leadership, Gentile said.

Gentile said Galardi, while cooperating with the government, is doing so to protect a $40 million estate from government seizure, the owner of the strip clubs in Nevada and California "doesn't really know what a bribe is."

He said Galardi clearly tried to bribe a police officer, who later turned out to be working with the FBI, but thousands of dollars channeled to the political leadership in San Diego and Las Vegas were attempts to win access and influence through legitimate campaign contributions.

"Bribe doesn't fit campaign contributions," Gentile said, mirroring the statements made by the San Diego defense attorneys. "What he was looking to do is, he's looking to become important."

The effort was far from successful. Galardi, Gentile said, "has got the worst track record of getting value for his bribes, if that's what they were."

"He intended to influence. That's legal. That's lawful," Gentile said.

Michael Pancer, attorney for Inzunza, said his client never took a bribe, never extorted money and "he never did anything to deprive the citizens of his services." Pancer said Inunza believed police wanted to change the no-touch rule to allow officers to spend more time patrolling the streets and that was based on statements made by an FBI informant.

Jerry Coughlan, attorney for Zucchet, took a similar line, arguing that Zucchet's only concern was getting rid of several adult businesses in his district that were eyesores.

Both lawyers said their clients attracted campaign contributions from Galardi and his lieutenants because they generally shared socially liberal perspectives that would allow nude dancing.

"I know that to some people, liberalism is a dirty word, but you have a right to your political philosophy," Pancer said.

Gentile said the San Diego trial will take a hard look at the lawmaking process and will also have to take a hard look at the issue of financing campaigns.

It will prove the old adage that "the legislative process is a lot like watching sausage being made," Gentile said.

"A lot of people will see for the first time what the legislative process is like," he predicted.

He said bribes and campaign contributions can look very similar.

"It's a gray area, but what it really boils down to is this: Is there an expectation versus anticipation?" Gentile said. "There may be a fine line.

"I think I know a bribe when I see one, and this isn't one."

Gentile and prosecutors agree that for Galardi, the problem in San Diego was an October 2000 law that changed the standard of illegal strip-club dancing from "lewd and lascivious" to "no touch." That meant that topless dancers could no longer perform lap dances, and the clubs and the dancers lost income.

Cook said the old standard was vague and difficult to prosecute while the no-touch rules provided "a bright line that was easier to enforce."

"Cheetahs itself would face enormous fines, suspension (of its cabaret license) and ultimately Mr. Galardi could face the loss of his license," Cook told the jurors.

But Gentile said the purpose behind the San Diego no-touch rule was to shut down the topless clubs such as Cheetahs.

"The reason we're here and the reason the indictment was filed in Nevada is because the topless entertainment industry is involved," he said.

The no-touch rule created a level of frustration for Galardi that led to a breaking point and ultimately the effort to swing the San Diego city council to change its rule, Gentile said.

A similar no-touch rule was adopted and passed by the Clark County Commission in 2002 before being repealed after just a couple of months. Kincaid-Chauncey, Herrera and Kenny all supported overturning the rule.

Cook told the jury that thousands of hours of recordings from bugs on people, places and telephone lines combined with testimony would provide the evidence needed to convict the four defendants.

"This is not a morality play about the propriety of nude dancing," Cook said. "That only serves as a backdrop for the corruption of the political process."