Trial of 2 San Diego Council Members Accused of Corruption Gets Underway

A federal prosecutor told jurors Tuesday that two City Council members took illegal contributions from a strip-club owner and his employees in a plot “to cheat the people of San Diego out of honest government.”

Assistant U.S. Atty. Paul Cook said extensive phone taps and conversations recorded by an undercover informant will show that Deputy Mayor Michael Zucchet and Councilman Ralph Inzunza took the money in exchange for promises to help change city law to allow nude dancers to touch their patrons.

“This case is about scheming, cheating, cheating the people of San Diego, and corruption of the political process,” Cook told jurors in his opening statement.

But attorneys for Zucchet and Inzunza said that the contributions were reported on campaign disclosure forms and that the two officeholders never promised to try to change the “no-touch” law.

“Why would he risk his career, risk his liberty, by raising $5,000 [in contributions]?” attorney Michael Pancer said of his client, Inzunza. “Does that make sense? It doesn’t and it didn’t happen.”

Pancer said that jurors should not believe the prosecutor’s undercover informant, a former bouncer at the Cheetahs Totally Nude strip club. The bouncer, Pancer said, was paid $100,000 by the government.

Cook conceded that the bouncer, who was called Tony Montagna, has a criminal record and comes “with baggage.”

Zucchet and Inzunza are on trial along with Lance Malone, a former lobbyist for Cheetahs, and Dave Cowan, a former aide to the late Councilman Charles Lewis. Lewis, Inzunza, and Zucchet were indicted in August 2003 after a two-year investigation. Lewis died in August 2004 while awaiting trial.

U.S. District Court Judge Jeffrey Miller has ruled that taped conversations involving Lewis can be played for the jury. “Lewis’ words are still with us,” Cook said.

Pancer and Zucchet’s attorney, Jerry Coughlan, said that it is common for people to call council members to try to influence their votes.

But Cook said the coziness that existed between Malone, Cheetahs’ owner Michael Galardi, and the council members went beyond normal discussions between officeholders and people with business before the council.

“This case is not politics as usual,” Cook said. “They concealed their corrupt purpose.”

None of the recordings show council members promising to attempt to change the law in exchange for the contributions.

But prosecutors insist that the tenor of the conversations provide proof that Malone and the council members had become partners in trying to change city law. In one tape, Inzunza calls himself Malone’s “humble servant” and on another, Zucchet promises Malone access to his office if elected.

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Times special correspondent Neal Putnam contributed to this report.