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LAS VEGAS - Even in a town used to baring it all - where Bugsy Siegel is regarded as a founding father, showgirls are a way of life and old-timers fondly recall when the mob ran the casinos - the steady stream of revelations flowing from a federal political corruption trial has been shocking.
A tough-talking strip club owner says he tossed bags of cash around to put politicians in his pocket. And when blue velvet Crown Royal bags stuffed with cash weren't enough, Michael Galardi and prosecutors say he traded sex - using strippers, dancers and other club employees to keep elected leaders happy and voting his way.
For six weeks, a federal court jury in the so-called G-sting trial has heard FBI wiretaps, seen videotapes and listened to testimony about politicians taking bribes.
Dario Herrera, a handsome former county commissioner and one-time rising political star who addressed the Democratic National Convention in 2000, admitted he interrupted a golf outing with Galardi to go off and have sex behind the bushes with one of Galardi's workers.
For his part, Galardi said he got sex at least six times from former Commissioner Erin Kenny, a 45-year-old mother of five who pleaded guilty in the case and testified for the prosecution.
Another former commissioner, Mary Kincaid-Chauncey, a 67-year-old grandmother, asked Galardi for cash so she could send her grandson to ski school and later had her own son and daughter testify against her. She also helped set up a strip club outing at a Galardi club for her son, an Air Force captain.
''It's got everything,'' said Eric Herzik, a University of Nevada, Reno political science professor who has followed the unfolding scandal in Las Vegas. ''High-level political figures in one of the most high-profile cities in America, basically admitting they're taking bribes.''
The case hinges on whether jurors believe Galardi, who pleaded guilty to racketeering in Las Vegas and is the prosecution's star witness. He already pleaded guilty in a related corruption case in San Diego, where two councilmen and Galardi's ''bag man'' were convicted.
A federal judge who heard the San Diego case last year expressed doubts about Galardi's credibility and granted a new trial to one of the convicted councilmen.
The Las Vegas jury hasn't been told of that, but they've heard hours of FBI wiretaps collected from 1999 to 2003 with Galardi, former Clark County Commissioner Lance Malone, Herrera, Kincaid-Chauncey and Kenny sharing what prosecutors claim were code words like ''hook up'' and ''say hi'' to represent cash payments. They also occasionally reminded each other to be careful what they said over the phone.
Malone, Galardi's lobbyist, has pleaded not guilty and will stand trial in August.
Kenny traded her testimony for a promised sentence of less than four years in prison and a $70,000 fine. She said that over the years, she got about $400,000 from Galardi and several local developers. She denied Galardi's sworn testimony that she provided oral sex.
Galardi has been promised no more than five years in federal prison on both the San Diego and Las Vegas charges, and could get probation.
Herrera, 32, and Kincaid-Chauncey have each pleaded not guilty to conspiracy, wire fraud and extortion under color of official right charges that could get them 45 years in prison if convicted on all counts.
Herrera was 23 when he was elected to the state Assembly in 1996, 25 when he was the youngest person ever elected to the county commission in 1998, and 29 when he lost a bid for Congress in 2002 as a protege of Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.
Kincaid-Chauncey runs a flower shop in North Las Vegas. She asked her pastor and a former Nevada senator and governor to testify as character witnesses.
Galardi, 44, said his goal was to make a strip club he was opening in 2002, Jaguars, the biggest and best in a town with more than two dozen competitors. A $15 million, 20,000-square-foot strip palace just off the Las Vegas Strip, it would be the only one of its size with fully nude dancers, alcohol, full-contact lap dances and no ban on gawking patrons placing tips in dancers' G-strings.
But he needed the commission.
''What I was paying them was, basically, chump change with what I would get back,'' Galardi said of officials he claimed to have bribed. ''If they pass tough enough laws, they could put me out of business.''
Defense lawyers call Galardi a liar who tailored his testimony to suit prosecutors.
Under oath, they asked Galardi to name names, and he obliged: fingering the mayor, judges, lawyers, the district attorney and county manager, a business license official - even Assistant U.S. Attorney Eric Johnson, who later testified that he was ''absolutely, completely certain'' he was not one of the 15 to 40 attorneys who would get free drinks and lap dances at Friday afternoon ''lawyer days'' at Galardi's clubs.
''It just got out of control,'' Galardi said. ''I had everyone in town hitting me up for money.''
None of the other officials has been charged. The FBI and U.S. attorney focused on the case against Malone, Kenny, Herrera and Kincaid-Chauncey - four former members of arguably the most important elected body in a state where 1.7 million of 2.2 million people live in Clark County.
''The County Commission, around here, is the government entity to watch,'' said Michael Green, a Community College of Southern Nevada history professor and political commentator. ''The Strip is in the county.''
Indeed, the FBI was watching.
In one surveillance videotape, Galardi spends several minutes at the trunk of his car before meeting Kenny in a construction trailer at the site of Galardi's new home in the hills overlooking Las Vegas. Galardi told the jury he was counting $10,000 in $100 bills into an empty Crown Royal whisky pouch for Kenny.
Galardi claimed he paid $200,000 to Herrera from 1999 to 2003, and $85,000 to Kincaid-Chauncey.
Herrera denied ever receiving cash from Galardi or Malone, but said he took a $10,000 check as a campaign contribution. Kincaid-Chauncey said she never got bribes, but acknowledged taking $4,000 from Galardi as a contribution to help send her grandson to an Olympic ski school, and $5,000 for a son's unsuccessful campaign for North Las Vegas City Council.
''These weren't campaign contributions,'' Galardi testified. ''These were friggin' bribes.''
Strippers and a former girlfriend also testified before Herrera took the stand and acknowledged receiving oral sex from a Galardi employee during a golf outing in 2001.
With his wife dabbing her eyes in the first row, Herrera admitted getting lap dances from a stripper at one of Galardi's clubs and said he'd had an affair with another Galardi employee, with whom he spent several days at a Four Seasons resort in Newport Beach, Calif. The trip was paid for by another Las Vegas strip club owner.
Herrera became emotional on the stand as he admitted ''recklessness'' while in office. He acknowledged Malone gave him a $10,000 check from Galardi as a campaign contribution. But he denied receiving the $10,000 a month that Galardi claimed he was paid, and told the jury that maybe Malone stole the cash.
In one FBI telephone wiretap recording, Galardi offers Herrera a Lincoln Navigator.
''I don't want to get us in trouble,'' Herrera responds. ''That's a little bit too obvious.''
Closing arguments are scheduled to begin Monday before the jury must decide who to believe.
''If people don't think this is interesting, then political scandal just ain't what it used to be,'' said Herzik, the UNR professor.