Tahoe Mayor Denied Bail in Drug Cash Case

A federal magistrate on Friday ordered South Lake Tahoe Mayor Terry Trupp held without bail until at least Wednesday but permitted the release of his wife, Kimberly, on $100,000 bail to the custody of relatives.

The Trupps were arrested Sunday on federal conspiracy and money-laundering charges allegedly involving efforts to launder $655,000 in “drug money” provided by undercover federal agents. Federal authorities allege that the Trupps are part of a cocaine ring centered in Lake Tahoe and involving suppliers and dealers in Orange County, Palm Springs and San Diego.

Terry Trupp, 46, requested that the hearing to set his bail be delayed so that his newly appointed public defender could review evidence in the case.

Kimberly Trupp, 24, was released on $100,000 bail secured by property owned by her family. She was ordered to live at the home of her aunt, Julie Lobato of South Lake Tahoe, and not to leave Lobato’s home for more than 24 hours without the permission of the court.

Foster Child in Home

Kimberly Trupp, who is the daughter of Lobato’s brother and a woman now deceased, was a foster child in the home of Terry Trupp and his third wife, Kathie, from the time she was a teen-ager, according to sources close to the family. In an earlier report in The Times, a former attorney for Terry Trupp incorrectly identified Kimberly Trupp as Terry Trupp’s stepdaughter.

In a related matter, the Associated Press reported that a Tahoe man murdered in San Rafael in 1984 was an associate of one of the people arrested in the Trupp case. The victim, Gary Gallo, was an associate of Perry McCullough of Zephyr Cove, Nev., whose arrest on June 9 in Sacramento blew the cover on the federal investigation and touched off the series of weekend arrests, according to federal agents.