Ex-official’s appeal to be heard at UNLV

By Jeff German

Sunday, Feb. 24, 2008 | 2 a.m.

A federal appeals panel will hold court Wednesday in Las Vegas, and the star of the show will be former Clark County Commissioner Mary Kincaid-Chauncey.

The 69-year-old Kincaid-Chauncey won’t be making an appearance in person, however. She’s in the middle of a 30-month engagement at a federal prison in Victorville, Calif.

But her lawyer, federal Public Defender Franny Forsman, will be on hand to argue the appeal of her May 2006 corruption conviction for taking bribes from former strip club owner Michael Galardi.

The three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, based in San Francisco, will take up Kincaid-Chauncey’s case and two others at the UNLV Boyd School of Law. It’s the first time the court has conducted hearings at UNLV.

The panel will convene in the law school’s Thomas & Mack Moot Court Facility, a $3 million high-tech teaching courtroom that was dedicated in December.

John White, dean of the law school, said he hopes the 9th Circuit will visit UNLV every year.

“We’ll make it happen if they want to come back,” he said.

Unless Kincaid-Chauncey catches a huge break as a result of next week’s hearing, her release date is March 15, 2009, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons. She likely will be freed sooner than that, however, because she can earn time for good behavior. She might even be out by the end of this year.

Galardi, her 46-year-old chief accuser, is likely to be released before she is. He has been earning additional time off from his 30-month sentence while undergoing drug rehabilitation at a federal prison facility 15 miles southwest of Denver and is expected to be released in July. Galardi reportedly has admitted to being hooked on anti-depressants and alcohol.

Former County Commissioner Dario Herrera, 34, who received a 50-month sentence for taking money under the table from Galardi, isn’t scheduled to be released until Aug. 27, 2010.

But he’s said to be adjusting well to life at a federal prison camp 45 miles south of Colorado Springs, Colo. He has even taken up teaching.

Herrera, who began serving his sentence on Jan. 12, 2007, the same day as Kincaid-Chauncey, has not appealed his conviction.

Another former county commissioner, Erin Kenny — who pleaded guilty to accepting bribes from Galardi and joined him as a government witness in the case — is serving her 30-month sentence at a federal prison camp in Phoenix. The 47-year-old Kenny is scheduled to be released in December 2009.

Former County Commissioner Lance Malone, 46, is expected to be behind bars the longest of any of the corruption defendants, despite his efforts to get his sentence reduced.

He was convicted of being Galardi’s bagman, the guy who spread the cash around town to elected officials, and is serving a six-year sentence at a federal institution in Lompoc, Calif.