SAN DIEGO -- It's not a new concept in Las Vegas -- if you want something done you pay for it, according to 10News. A man who was inside the Las Vegas Cheetahs strip club said it was easy to import that "Las Vegas" mentality to San Diego.
Brent Jordan worked for Cheetahs' owner Michael Galardi in Las Vegas.
"Mike was very concerned about the San Diego club, in particular about the distance a dancer could be from a customer," Jordan said.
Galardi agreed to testify against politicians in San Diego and Las Vegas -- people he said he bribed.
Jordan, a former Cheetahs bouncer, wrote a book about his experiences at Cheetahs. He said Galardi began hatching plans for changing the San Diego "no-touch laws" during the 1990s and used former Clark County Commissioner Lance Malone, who at the time was on Cheetahs' payroll.
"I remember the solution he and Lance Malone came up with was across the board. It fixed the problems in Las Vegas and San Diego at the same time," Jordan said.
The fixes, Jordan said, were bribes, and Galardi kept a safe full of envelopes stuffed with cash in Las Vegas.
"Thirty-thousand (dollars) wasn't fitting in one of those envelopes I saw, but $5,000 would and he was probably paying them monthly," Jordan said.
Malone was supposed to handle San Diego.
Galardi made millions at Cheetahs, 10News reported.
But, Jordan said his boss knew he could make a lot more with laws allowing dancers to touch customers.
"So what if you have to pay $40,000 or $50,000 to a couple of politicians? You stand to make millions and millions with the less restrictive lap dance rules," Jordan told 10News.
That's why Galardi, Malone and others in Las Vegas began churning out ideas, Jordan told 10News.
"Some (ideas were) not so nice as simply paying them off, which is how it turned out," Jordan said.
Federal court documents allege San Diego City Councilman Michael Zucchet returned some Galardi money in 2001 because he "feared political fallout from taking checks from entertainers."
But Zucchet allegedly said he would take money later as long as it did not need to be disclosed until "after the election," 10News reported.
Court files also allege Malone attended an October 2002 fundraiser for Zucchet hosted by fellow councilmember and co-defendant Ralph Inzunza.
Prosecutors quote Inzunza as telling Malone, "It's the final push for our boy Zucchet. We need probably about $3,000."
"These city councilmen sold out their city for about the same price as a big screen TV," Jordan said.
A judge will decide whether the councilmen really did take bribes, 10News reported.
More details about what happened behind the scenes are expected to come out during the trial over the next two to three months. For updates, stay tuned to 10News, who will cover the trial on a daily basis.
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