Paulene Galardi, the estranged wife of former strip club mogul Michael Galardi, sits in her home Tuesday afternoon. She said she is upset that he has portrayed her as having a drinking problem and being incapable of caring for their two children. Photo by K.M. Cannon.

Michael Galardi portrayed himself in court Monday as a compassionate father who is caring for his two children because his estranged wife has a drinking problem.

After the former strip club owner was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in federal prison, he left the courthouse saying he did not know who would take care of his children, ages 8 and 10, while he is locked up.

At least one person didn't believe Galardi's lament: his estranged wife.

"I'm tired of being known as the estranged wife with a drinking problem," Paulene Galardi said Tuesday. "I'm just someone who married bad."

Michael Galardi's statements about his children prompted U.S. District Judge Larry Hicks to give him until summer to check into prison. The June 22 deadline allowed Michael Galardi to help his children through the school year before he starts his sentence.

Paulene Galardi said her husband duped the court.

"The only reason he's sorry in court is because he was caught," she said. "He's charming in court; when he's not in court, he's a rattlesnake."

Paulene Galardi said she and her husband have shared custody of the children. Their son and daughter split their time between the couple. The couple married on April 8, 1990, at the Candlelight Wedding Chapel in Las Vegas but have been separated since 2001, she said. They remain married because Michael Galardi has insisted they remain married for the sake of the children, she said.

She does not work outside of the home, but that is the way her husband wanted it, she said. Don't get the wrong impression, she warned. She doesn't live a lavish lifestyle of a woman married to a man who operated a business that generated $14 million a year.

"I am fortunate to be a stay-at-home mom," Paulene Galardi said. "It's not Green Acres; I'm no Zsa Zsa Gabor. I don't have half the lifestyle his girlfriends have."

Paulene Galardi said she was arrested for driving under the influence last year, but she has made her court appearances and undergone the counseling ordered by the court. She said she is not a boozer incapable of caring for her children as her husband suggested.

"For that to be in the paper is so hurtful," she said. "I have to go to the store, I have to go to (the children's) school.

"If he is going to throw me under the bus after us having a cordial relationship, then it's about time I speak up."

Attempts to reach Michael Galardi through his attorney, Robert Rose, were unsuccessful Tuesday.

Michael Galardi pleaded guilty in 2003 to one count of racketeering related to a bribery scheme involving Clark County commissioners. Through his bagman Lance Malone, a former commissioner and one-time police officer, Michael Galardi paid cash bribes to sitting commissioners Erin Kenny, Dario Herrera and Mary Kincaid-Chauncey.

Michael Galardi was the fourth participant of the scheme to be sentenced. Kenny, who pleaded guilty, is scheduled for sentencing in June.

Paulene Galardi said she met her future husband when she was a cocktail waitress at Tops and Tails, a Galardi-owned San Diego strip club now known as Cheetah's. She began splitting her time between her job in San Diego and at the Crazy Horse in Las Vegas.

He would send her flowers in San Diego. She would toss them in her yard.

"I ran as fast as I could from him," she said.

Her friends in San Diego were leery of her new boyfriend. After all, the man had grown up in topless clubs.

According to his pre-sentencing report, Michael Galardi began cleaning his father's topless clubs when he was 8 years old. By the time he was 14, he would clean five bars before going to school, the report said. He worked his way up from a doorman to a manager before buying a club of his own.

Michael Galardi was persistent, and Paulene fell for him. Six weeks into their relationship, he fired her and told her they were getting married. She would not have to work again, he said.

"He's a man's man; he's pretty confident in himself," she said, describing her attraction to him.

It was not easy being married to a man constantly surrounded by strippers whom he employed. She suspects he cheated on her for most of the time they were together.

Their marriage began to fizzle in 2001, when he was building a $15 million, 30,000-square-foot mansion on the west side of town and the palatial $15 million, 20,000-square-foot Jaguars club, thought to have been the largest strip club in the world at the time.

"I walked out in 2001 because he was bringing all these creepy people into the house," Paulene Galardi said. "I told him I was done with this marriage."

She said Michael Galardi had been more involved in his children's lives before the construction of Jaguars began.

"He was actually starting to enjoy the children, kind of like, 'Wow, I'm a dad,'" she said. "Then he started Jaguars, and I saw the ego take off again."

At the time, federal agents were zeroing in on his illicit relationships with county commissioners. The 2003 indictment said Michael Galardi was paying off the elected officials to expedite construction of Jaguars and to keep out businessmen planning to open competing clubs near his prize venture.

"I said, 'You're getting greedy; you're getting ahead of yourself,'" Paulene Galardi said. "He said, 'I'm doing this for our family.' I said, 'You know what? You're doing this for Mike.'"

About that same time, she became suspicious when a bodyguard began accompanying him. His name was Tony Montagna, and in reality, he was no bodyguard. He was an FBI informant planted by the government. Montagna wore a body wire and taped conversations that were used to convict two San Diego City councilmen accused of taking cash bribes from Michael Galardi.

"I told Mike this guy is not a bodyguard," she said. "Mike likes anyone who blows sunshine up his (expletive). I told him if that guy is a bodyguard, then I'm a rocket scientist."

She also questioned the reason behind her husband's request to travel to Florida and Georgia to visit his ailing father, Jack Galardi. The request, which Hicks granted on Monday, came as a surprise to spectators in the courtroom who are familiar with the long-standing rift between the father and son.

Jack Galardi, who has a topless club empire that stretches from Nevada to the East Coast, frowned upon his son's business tactics. Paulene Galardi said her husband had not talked to his father in two years before he called him after the sentencing hearing Monday.

Michael Galardi has never explained his legal troubles to their children, she said. She believes he has the responsibility to talk to the children.

"What am I supposed to tell the kids? They think he's a lawyer because they see him on TV in a suit hanging out with the other attorneys," she said. "It is going to devastate my kids because they think bad people go to jail."

Michael Galardi loves his children, she said, and they cherish him. Their custody arrangement, although not dictated by a court of law, worked out until Monday when an attorney announced that Michael Galardi has "taken over the parenting of the children" because Paulene Galardi is "debilitated by alcohol."

"He's not raising those kids by himself, and he never has," she said. "I think that's a trump card.

"As far as this (the DUI), I've gone to court, and I'm doing everything I'm supposed to do. Why would he do this? Of course, why wouldn't he? It's Mike."