Columnist Jeff German: On the former county commissioner’s role in latest corruption probe

Thursday, Nov. 24, 2005 | 7:26 a.m.

Jeff German's column appears Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday in the Sun. Reach him at german@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4067.

This week's corruption indictment of Don Davidson and his imprisoned son is supposed to be the first in a wave of criminal cases built with the help of former County Commissioner Erin Kenny.

There better be more coming -- because the indictment provides us with further evidence that Kenny may be one of the most corrupt politicians of all time in Southern Nevada.

Kenny, who served on the County Commission from 1994 through 2002, cut a sweetheart deal with federal prosecutors in 2003 to save her own skin.

After pleading guilty to taking $25,000 and $35,000 in bribes from former strip club owner Michael Galardi, she was allowed to remain free while she joined Galardi in cooperating with the feds.

To give you an idea of how starved for cash Kenny was, court-approved wiretaps once captured her saying she was on her knees "begging" the shadowy Galardi for money.

And now we're learning that Kenny apparently sold her public services to the highest bidder.

The latest indictment alleges that Davidson, with the help of his son, Lawrence, secretly funneled $200,000 to Kenny for orchestrating zoning changes that allowed a pharmacy to be built in the middle of a neighborhood against the wishes of the residents.

Just reading the indictment is disgusting. You can see the greed oozing out of Kenny.

"It's depressing," says County Manager Thom Reilly. "It really calls into question all of her dealings in the county."

The sad thing here is that she was very good at disguising her corruption. The public had no idea of the extent of her greed until the FBI began nosing around.

Kenny was a great friend of the unions and very passionate on a lot of different issues.

But the underlying theme to her passion, it turns out, was what she could get out of it -- not what would benefit the public.

Today Kenny is working for the government.

There's probably not a better witness the feds could have found to take the corruption probe to the next level.

But Kenny has yet to pay a price for betraying the public.

Though she pleaded guilty more than two years ago, she still hasn't been sentenced.

She leads a comfortable life -- in a five-bedroom home she and her husband bought for $869,000 about 18 months ago -- as she helps federal prosecutors put away the community heavyweights who corrupted her.

And she's still in it for herself.

The decision on whether to indict Crazy Horse Too owner Rick Rizzolo, I'm told, now rests with the Justice Department in Washington.

And, as the waiting game is played, local FBI agents seem to be tying up loose ends in the racketeering probe.

That might explain why agents requested a bunch of City Hall records Oct. 27 related to Rizzolo and the tenure of City Councilman Michael McDonald, a longtime friend of the topless club mogul.

The request came in the form of a letter that created quite a buzz at City Hall after it was withdrawn five days later.

But there's no big mystery here.

Agents, I'm told, simply decided that the material they wanted was public information that could be obtained without a letter.

What still seems to be up in the air, however, is McDonald's status in the investigation.

Is he a target or a witness?

Nobody wants to talk about that, including his lawyer, Richard Wright, who says he has had no conversations at all with the government about McDonald's connection to the Rizzolo probe.