Editorial: More troubling revelations

Tuesday, April 18, 2006 | 7:13 a.m.

Just when it seems that the stories can't get any worse in the federal corruption trial involving four former Clark County commissioners and a Las Vegas strip club owner, internal Justice Department documents have revealed that local FBI agents were among those who received drinks, lap dances and other freebies from Cheetahs owner Michael Galardi.

According to a copyrighted story in Sunday's Las Vegas Sun, the Justice Department records show that FBI agent Robert Pellet admitted to accepting gifts from Galardi that included free admission to Cheetahs, drinks, lap dances, meals and tickets to see a Mike Tyson fight. In Pellet's Jan. 31 sworn affidavit, which was obtained by the Sun, the agent said he met Galardi - whom he later befriended - in 1996 "at a time when he (Galardi) was viewed as a pro-law enforcement 'good' guy."

Galardi is a witness in the ongoing federal trial in which former County Commissioners Dario Herrera and Mary Kincaid-Chauncey have been accused of accepting Galardi's cash bribes, gifts and favors in exchange for political action that was favorable to his strip clubs. Former County Commissioner Erin Kenny already has pleaded guilty to accepting bribes. Former County Commissioner Lance Malone goes on trial in August for his alleged role in the cash transfers.

And now it has been revealed that agents from the FBI - the agency that has been investigating Galardi since 2000 - received favors and gifts from the Cheetahs owner as well. Pellet, who is not on the team investigating the bribery allegations, told Justice Department officials he enjoyed free admission to the club about four times a month, free drinks, free lap dances and freebies whenever he took a group of FBI agents there for bachelor parties.

Pellet, who has since been transferred to Seattle, also told investigators that Galardi picked up the tab whenever the two of them went out to eat and that Galardi even drove off in Pellet's new FBI-issued official car when Pellet stopped at his home to show it off.

And it seems Galardi did some showing off of his own. The Justice Department documents show he told federal investigators that he bragged about being pals with Pellet because "hanging out with the FBI made him feel important and untouchable."

But FBI agents are the ones who are supposed to be untouchable. The FBI has launched an internal investigation of Pellet's relationship with Galardi, but the public deserves a full accounting of his - and other agents' - involvement, including what disciplinary action, if any, has been taken. Our nation's pre-eminent law enforcement officers should be above reproach and should not accept freebies or "law enforcement discounts" from the people their agency is investigating. It doesn't get much more contemptible than that.