Galardi free after serving 18 months

Former strip club mogul Michael Galardi is living and working in the San Diego area after being released from federal custody, his lawyer said Wednesday.

Attorney Robert Rose said Galardi, 47, was released from a halfway house in San Diego on Jan. 5 after spending 18 months in custody for bribing politicians in California and Nevada.

Rose wouldn't say what type of work Galardi is doing.

Before going to prison, Galardi said he intended to leave the adult entertainment industry.

"I feel if I wasn't in this business, I wouldn't be in the trouble I'm in," he said then.

Galardi surrendered on July 6, 2007, to the federal prison camp in Littleton, Colo., after receiving a 30-month sentence.

Sandra Hijar, a spokeswoman for the Federal Bureau of Prisons' western region, said Galardi transferred to the halfway house a year later. Records showed that he participated in a substance-abuse treatment program, she said.

Hijar said probation officials will supervise Galardi, a father of two, for the next three years.

Galardi's odyssey with the criminal justice system began in 2003, when he was charged in separate indictments in San Diego and Las Vegas. He accepted plea agreements in both cases and began cooperating with prosecutors.

The businessman admitted bribing numerous politicians, including San Diego city council members and Clark County commissioners.

Convicted in one of Southern Nevada's most notorious political corruption scandals were former Clark County commissioners Erin Kenny, Lance Malone, Dario Herrera and Mary Kincaid-Chauncey.

In December, Kincaid-Chauncey was transferred to a Las Vegas halfway house after spending nearly two years in a women's prison.

Contact reporter Carri Geer Thevenot at cgeer@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-8135.