Weinergate one of many sex scandals with Las Vegas ties

Tiger Woods

The winner of 14 major professional golf tournaments, trailing only Jack Nicklaus, is the clear clubhouse leader when it comes to fooling around with women. The globe-trotting extramarital affair Woods had with Rachel Uchitel, a former VIP hostess at Tao nightclub inside the Venetian, first made headlines in 2009 and led to the golfer’s divorce last year from former model Elin Nordegren.

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John Ensign

The Nevada Republican resigned from the U.S. Senate on May 3 rather than face possible sanctions from the Senate Ethics Committee surrounding his extramarital affair with former campaign aide Cynthia Hampton, his wife’s best friend and the wife of ex-Ensign chief of staff Doug Hampton. The Justice Department initially declined to indict Ensign for the role he reportedly played in trying to secure lobbying contracts for Hampton once the aide left the senator’s staff. There was also the questionable $96,000 payoff his parents made to the Hampton family, and allegations from the Ethics Committee that Ensign destroyed evidence of the affair. Because the Ethics Committee encouraged the Justice Department and Federal Election Commission to reopen investigations of Ensign, the final chapter of the affair he first acknowledged in 2009 may yet to be written.

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Jim Gibbons

In October 2006, a month before the former Republican governor was elected to that post, Gibbons was accused of making unwanted advances toward Las Vegas resident Chrissy Mazzeo after the two first met at McCormick & Schmick’s restaurant. Mazzeo alleged that Gibbons walked her to her car and attacked her in a parking garage stairwell by grabbing her arms and pushing her against a wall. Gibbons denied the allegations. Mazzeo subsequently filed a lawsuit in federal court against Gibbons, political adviser Sig Rogich, Metro Police and former Sheriff Bill Young in which she alleged not only the assault but retaliation against her after she reported her allegations. The case is still open, according to court records, but a federal judge rejected some of her charges.

Katie Rees

The Las Vegas resident, crowned Miss Nevada USA at a pageant in Las Vegas in October 2006 at age 22, was stripped of her title two months later when racy photos of her at a Florida party when she was 17 surfaced on the Internet. The photos showed Rees baring her breasts and making other sexually suggestive poses that pageant organizers felt were distasteful.

Dario Herrera, Erin Kenny, Mary Kincaid-Chauncey and Lance Malone

All four former Clark County commissioners spent time in federal prison for their roles in a bribery scandal in which Herrera, Kenny and Kincaid-Chauncey traded votes for bribes to benefit Las Vegas strip club owner Michael Galardi, who also served prison time. Malone was Galardi’s bagman in a case disclosed in 2003 that some journalists dubbed Operation G-string because Galardi wanted ordinances that would allow customers to have closer contact with strippers. Prosecutors also charged that Galardi’s strippers performed oral sex on Herrera at strip clubs and on golf outings, and Galardi testified that he repeatedly received oral sex from Kenny.

Photo by Sam Morris/Las Vegas Sun

Mark Manendo

When the Las Vegas Democrat was in the Assembly he was accused in 2003 of sexually harassing two legislative interns. He was subsequently stripped of his chairmanship of the Assembly Government Affairs Committee by then-Assembly Speaker Richard Perkins. Manendo was privately reprimanded by Democratic leaders in 2009 after allegedly telling a state worker in a vulgar tone that he found photos of her to be sexually appealing. Yet Manendo survived those accusations to be elected to the state Senate in November.

Marie Hartman

Hartman, a noted porn star who performed in films as Nina Hartley, was among 10 women who pleaded guilty to participating in an obscene sex show in 1993 that was conducted in a tent behind Pure Pleasure Book & Video on South Highland Drive.

They paid a combined $20,000 to organizations that fight AIDS and sexual abuse. The bookstore owner, Jeff Haseltine, and the show’s promoter, William Margold, pleaded guilty and paid fines.

H. Lawrence Garrett and Adm. Frank Kelso

Navy Secretary Garrett resigned and Kelso took early retirement from his position as the nation’s chief of naval operations following the outcry over massive sexual harassment at the September 1991 Tailhook Association naval aviator convention at the Las Vegas Hilton. The Defense Department chastised the Navy’s leadership for failing to prevent the Tailhook scandal, linking 117 military officers to accusations of sexual harassment and indecent exposure involving dozens of females. Most of the victims reportedly were civilians but those subject to lewd behavior included former Navy Lt. Paula Coughlin, who won a $6.7 million jury award — later reduced to $5.2 million — after arguing that hotel security was shoddy.

Judith Exner

Exner, who died in 1999, claimed to have had an affair with John F. Kennedy after meeting him for the first time in Las Vegas during his successful 1960 presidential campaign. Exner, who reportedly met Kennedy through entertainer Frank Sinatra when her name was Judith Campbell, was also romantically linked to Chicago mobster Sam Giancana and claimed to have served as an intermediary between Giancana and Kennedy.