Saturday, July 2, 2011

Former San Diego Councilman and Las Vegas Strip Club

The Las Vegas strip club owner and bribery scandal that brought down a San Diego city councilman is making headlines again.

A one time San Diego city councilman, Ralph Inzunza, remained free from jail on bond last week while a judge continued to evaluate prosecutors' request that he be placed into custody and begin serving his 21-month sentence.

Jeffrey Miller, the U.S. District judge overseeing the case announced that he would issue a ruling on Inzuna's fate shortly.

Inzunza was convicted of political corruption over six years ago for accepting campaign contributions in exchange for favorable treatment of a strip club owner's efforts to change governing laws in San Diego. The Las Vegas strip club owner was also charged with crimes relating to the incident. However, Inzuna has yet to be incarcerated as the appeals process has played out. Although, the appeals have not yielded any results for Inzuna.

After the last appeal in April, prosecutors initiated a request to revoke Inzuna's bond and put him into jail.

Inzunza was convicted of fraud, conspiracy and extortion in 2005. He and then-Councilmen Michael Zucchet and Charles Lewis were indicted in 2003 along with strip club owner Michael Galardi of Las Vegas and his lobbyist, Lance Malone. Later that year, the lobbyist was sentenced to 36 months in prison, while Las Vegas' Galardi was sentenced to 15 months in 2007.