Monday, May 16, 2005 | 9:32 a.m.
SAN DIEGO -- The lawyer for a former Clark County commissioner facing multiple counts in a federal corruption scandal said testimony and evidence offered Friday damaged his client, but he promised that later evidence would blunt the impact of last week's prosecution.
Dominic Gentile said recordings from body wires carried by government informant Tony Montagna contained some of the most damaging evidence that would be produced by federal prosecutors against Lance Malone, the former commissioner who allegedly funneled campaign contributions to co-defendants Ralph Inzunza and Michael Zucchet, and then to two San Diego city councilmen.
The recordings from 2001 and 2002 included conversations between Montagna -- the bodybuilder, admitted drug trafficker and "head of security" for strip-club owner Michael Galardi and his manager, John D'Intino -- about payoffs to a San Diego police officer.
The officer, who in fact was working with the FBI, worked in the vice division and tipped off Galardi and D'Intino when vice would raid Galardi's only San Diego club.
Galardi and D'Intino have pleaded guilty and are cooperating in the government's case against the two San Diego councilmen, a council aide, and Malone, as well as a parallel investigation against Clark County commissioners in Las Vegas.
Montagna in his testimony Friday said that acting on the request of the FBI, they tried to entice Galardi, D'Intino and Malone into a similar relationship with a Metro Police officer. At one point Montagna told Malone he has a relationship with an officer in "intell," and asked Malone, a former Metro officer, what that Metro division did.
"I want to find out what this guy can do for us," Montagna, on the recording, told Malone.
On the wiretap, Malone immediately made a call to Metro to find out. The answer, that intell oversee investigations into organized crime.
Montagna explained to Malone that he corrupted police by doing physical training with them, then supplying illegal steroids to further pump up their physiques, and from there a police officer has "already stuck his foot in."
The entire scenario was a fictitious background story to explain how he could corrupt police officers to work for the strip clubs, Montagna told the court.
However, Galardi apparently never took the bait on the Las Vegas police officer. Montagna said Galardi appeared to have connections with Las Vegas politicians that went higher than Metro police.
"I believe that he had enough power and pull in Las Vegas with the politicians that he could get away with almost anything," Montagna testified.
Other Las Vegas political figures appeared in testimony or wiretaps for the first time Friday in the San Diego trial, including Michael McDonald, a former Las Vegas city councilman, and Dario Herrera, a former Clark County commissioner.
Herrera and former Commissioner Mary Kincaid-Chauncey are scheduled to join Malone in a Las Vegas trial likely to begin next year on similar public corruption charges. Former Commissioner Erin Kenny has already pleaded guilty to multiple charges and is cooperating with the government on the case.
In Friday's testimony, Montagna said he never directly paid McDonald but saw the then-Las Vegas councilman take money from Galardi's safe in the Las Vegas office of the Cheetahs strip club.
McDonald, who has not been charged in the investigation, was a paid consultant for Galardi and said he abstained from voting on issues affecting the strip club when he served on the council.
Gentile said the characterization of McDonald's pay as a bribe was part of the government's effort to tar everyone in the case.
"It is just another cheap shot," he said.
Gentile, in his opening statement Wednesday, acknowledged that the wiretaps would hurt the case, but he asked the jurors to hold off making a judgment until they hear the recorded conversations between Malone and Galardi. Malone took Galardi's, the boss's, word that the police officer was not paid off, Gentile said.
"There's more to come," Gentile said. "This is not over by a long shot."
But revelations that Malone had a half-interest in potentially lucrative income from automatic teller machine transactions at the three Las Vegas and one San Diego strip club showed that the former commissioner, who was defeated in a contentious 2000 re-election bid, had a close relationship with Galardi.
Montagna called Malone Galardi's "right-hand man." He said he told Malone when police would be raiding the San Diego club.
The tip-offs from the police officer pretending to be taking money from Galardi were apparently real, but the advance information on the raids did not appear to help the operation. Despite the warnings, the club's female entertainers continued to perform lap-dances -- expressly prohibited by the city's October 2000 "no touch" rule -- in front of men who turned out to be San Diego Police officers.
One dancer told either a police officer or a customer sitting next to a police officer that she had to be careful because the club expected an undercover raid that evening.
The issue prompted Malone to warn Montagna that too many people knew about the tips from the vice officer, the wiretaps indicated. In the recordings, Malone warned Montagna that the club owners should not tell the dancers why they needed to be careful on a particular night.
"We got to tell Mike (Galardi) he can't say (expletive) anymore. ... Nobody should say anything," Malone told Montagna on a recording from February 2002.
A month later Malone again referenced the police cooperation with Galardi. At the time, the club operators believed they might be able to overturn San Diego's "no touch" rule that had cut into club profits and prompted Galardi and his lieutenants to get involved in the political process.
Malone suggested that even if the hated rule was thrown out by cooperative San Diego councilmen, the police officer should continue receiving money from the club.
"I don't think we should ever lose them," Malone said of the police.
archive
