Friday, May 23, 2003 | 11:42 a.m.
A videotape of Las Vegas City Councilman Michael Mack receiving a lap dance at Cheetahs is among the items that were seized by the FBI during the raid of the strip club last week, a law enforcement source said.
The list of what was confiscated as part of the FBI's public corruption investigation includes a "videotape of Mike Mack."
Sources said nothing illegal occurs on the tape, which was the only seized videotape specifically labeled by investigators.
Mack said that he had not viewed the tape. He acknowledged that he has received lap dances at Cheetahs in the past but said he no longer frequents the club.
Mack said he was shocked to learn there was a videotape of him at the club. He said he had no ideathat he had been taped at the club and didn't know why the club had saved the tape.
"I don't know what to think about it," Mack said. "I have been to these places a handful of times, and I really don't have any further comment. I've never been involved in any investigation of any form. I've never been notified by any authority as to being a witness or target. All this is brand new to me."
Mack said that although he is currently handling the marketing for a new adult entertainment establishment called Treasures, he's not concerned about working with such a club despite the current investigation.
Mack says he's paid a monthly retainer to do all of Treasures' marketing, advertising and media realations through the company MK2. He says he does not do zoning work and has disclosed the relationship and abstained on all votes pertaining to the club located within the City limits.
"I don't look at Treasures as any different from any other marketing and advertising contract," Mack said. "I've always stated my relationship and it has been very clear."
Mack, 38, joins a list of political figures connected to a two-year FBI investigation into public corruption. On May 14 the FBI and Metro Police served search warrants at Cheetahs and Jaguars strip clubs, owned by Jack Galardi and his son Michael Galardi.
The FBI had no comment on the video or any of the other items that were taken, because the investigation is ongoing and that the search warrant and affidavits in the case are sealed.
"When we execute a search warrant we take everything that falls under what we're looking for, and then we review it,"FBI spokesman Special Agent Daron Borst said. "If it is determined that it is not important to the investigation it is returned."
Peter S. Christiansen, the attorney representing Mike Galardi, said he had no comment on the Mack tape and didn't know what was on it. He has said that Galardi has not received a letter identifying him as a target of the investigation.
Pete Eliades, owner of the Olympic Garden strip club, said many strip clubs have video cameras.
"They are there to make sure that the men respect the women and the women respect the men," Eliades said during an interview Tuesday on "Face to Face With Jon Ralston" on Las Vegas ONE. "They are also there for law enforcement if something takes place, so we can see who did what."
Eliades said that he wasn't surprised that the FBI would take the video of Mack, even if nothing illegal was on the tape.
"They're going to grab it because they're looking for evidence," Eliades said. "It's a public official and that can be embarrassing, but if it was a John Doe it wouldn't get a second look.
"We all go to these places, and I think we all have a little fear that a girlfriend, wife or theologian will find out."
In addition to the Mack video, the FBI took unidentified videotapes, payroll records, computers and nearly $100,000 in cash from the clubs, an undisclosed home and the downtown offices of Galardi Enterprises.
According to one of the search warrants, authorities were looking for documentation of payments or gifts made by the Galardis to: Las Vegas City Councilman Michael McDonald; County Commissioner Mary Kincaid-Chauncey or her husband, Robert Chauncey; former County Commissioner Erin Kenny or her husband, John Kenny; and former County Commissioner Dario Herrera or his wife, Emily.
McDonald has said he has not been notified that he is a target of the investigation. Lawyers for Kincaid-Chauncey and Kenny have said their clients did receive "target letters." Herrera and his lawyer, Eric Goodman, have refused to say whether Herrera received one of the letters.
Another central figure in the investigation is former Clark County Commissioner Lance Malone, a former Metro Police officer who went to work for the Galardis as a lobbyist after he was voted off the commission in 2000, sources close to the investigation said.
Malone was not named in the search warrants and has been unreachable since the warrants were served.
No charges have been filed against anyone named in the search warrants, Malone or the Galardis, but grand jury testimony could lead to indictments in the case.
Mack, a pawnbroker who was appointed to the council in 1999 and was elected in 2001, has run into several problems while in office.
He filed for bankruptcy in 2001 owing more than $3 million to creditors. He also faced an ethics complaint because he voted to deny a car dealership to John Staluppi Jr. in June 2001.
Mack did not disclose until after the vote that he had taken a $60,000 loan from rival car dealer Joseph Scala. In 2002 a Las Vegas municipal court judge ruled that Mack did not intentionally violate ethics laws with the vote.
During his bankruptcy and the ethics case Mack unexpectedly left town and went to Scottsdale, Ariz., to be treated for what he said was a stress disorder.
Mack is currently working as a consultant to a new strip club being built south of Sahara Avenue on a piece of property that borders Interstate 15. The club, Treasures, is expected to open this Fall.
Also mentioned on the search warrant return are miscellaneous files that mention Thomas Waddell. The San Diego Union Tribune reports that there is a Jaguars host by the same name who addressed that city's council on strip club regulations. Waddell had claimed to be a San Diego resident for five years when he actually was a resident of Las Vegas, the newspaper reported.
At the same time that the FBI raids were conducted in Las Vegas, a similar set of raids were carried out in the offices of three San Diego City Councilmen and the Cheetahs club there.
At Jaguars the FBI seized records from the San Diego Cheetahs, including bills and bank information. Credit Card slips and register tapes were also taken from the clubs and Galardi Enterprises. A Glock 23 pistol was taken at Jaguars and an empty gun magazine labeled for law enforcement or government use only was taken from Cheetahs.
Richard Wright, attorney for McDonald and Kincaid-Chauncey, has criticized the FBI, saying that agents have used underhanded tactics during the investigation and lied to Kincaid-Chauncey when they interviewed her at her home hours after the raids.
Kincaid-Chauncey has confirmed that authorities did notify her that she is a target of the investigation.
Wright also blasted investigators for what he said were leaks that have led to sealed information being made public.
Mayor Oscar Goodman said Thursday at his weekly press conference, that he was surprised to be reading about so many leaks during a portion of the investigation which is supposed to be kept secret. He also felt investigators should be careful about naming names in a case like this because of the perception it gives the public about the officials.
"It's a sin if they didn't do anything wrong and their names are being bandied around like this," Goodman said.
Goodman's son Eric is one of the attorney's representing Herrera, and he was asked Thursday if he would give any advise to his son. Goodman's reply:
"What father wouldn't?"
Goodman said his advice would be to "do the right thing all of the time."
Sun reporter Judy Odierna contributed to this report.
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