Sorry Kenny seems to be sorry that she has to testify that she’s sorry

Erin Kenny has a message for you, Southern Nevada.

She's still, like, sorry for betraying her office as a Clark County commissioner.

Can you forgive her?

Don't answer yet. First, let's hear from Kenny during recent testimony in the criminal case against real estate consultant Don Davidson as she attempted to convey her sincere regret over acting like a Hoover cash vacuum while in office.

Given months to prepare her testimony, gaining valuable experience in the public corruption trial of her former colleagues-turned-jailbirds Dario Herrera and Mary Kincaid-Chauncey, Kenny had plenty of time to work on her delivery. Like other actresses, her character had plenty of motivation: in her case, Kenny was trying to trim months, even years, from her federal prison sentence, which barring another delay is scheduled to be revealed to her Wednesday.

Her demands to be showered with cash from developers for her personal and political uses were initially revealed in the case involving the former commissioners and strip club mogul Michael Galardi. Although she claimed to suffer from memory loss due to self-diagnosed vertigo, Kenny admitted she had gobbled up thousands from Galardi before running to the government following an FBI public corruption investigation.

Now it's Davidson's turn before the bar of justice. He's accused of conspiracy, wire fraud and money laundering. The government alleges he helped bribe Kenny and set up, with help from his son Larry Davidson, an offshore bank account to hold the former commissioners' ill-gotten loot.

Given an opportunity to show some real emotion and contrition on the witness stand in the Davidson case, Kenny didn't exactly wax Shakespearean.

"It was improper and illegal," Kenny told the court under oath.

Five words. No tears. Not an ounce of genuine regret in her voice. I've seen longer sentences in Scrabble.

Improper and illegal?

Kenny managed to blow through those moral stop signs like Paris Hilton on a three-day bender.

The more I think about Kenny's testimony, the more I think she's mostly sorry the greenback orgy is over.

Take the structuring of her supposedly secret offshore bank account, the one that was meant to hold a small fortune in bribe bucks. She testified that the Davidsons and her accountant, Dan Geiger, hammered out the details while she was busy betraying the public trust with both fists. She even included her elderly father in the scheme.

Why didn't she pay closer attention to the details of the deal that was bringing her $200,000 with the expectancy of another $200,000 in a year?

Not because she was supremely cocky and busy campaigning.

"Because it was such a bad thing that I refused to look at it," she told the court under oath.

No, she had Geiger do the looking and the planning and the obfuscating.

"Because it wasn't how I was raised, and it's not what I should have been doing," she told the court under oath.

It's not what she should have done. But it never bothered her while she was doing it.

County officials who were around Kenny during the time of the CVS Pharmacy and McCarran Airport flight path zoning battles recall a person desperate to ram through deals for her allies. She barely made a secret of her allegiances. It might not have been how she was raised, but it's how she operated.

Not only did Geiger tell the court he helped mask the first $200,000, but he also testified in court recently that Kenny expected to receive another $200,000.

Geiger was a skilled accountant, but even he couldn't keep up with Kenny's boundless rapacity. The $200,000 never materialized. A year after the CVS Pharmacy caper, Kenny was out of office and reassessing her friendships but still counting her untaxed wealth. The audacious zoning change in the flight path was reversed after Kenny left office.

But, hey, that's all in the past. Even though she admitted she still receives $16,800 a month as a consultant to controversial developer Jim Rhodes, Kenny has expressed an absolutely emotionless level of contrition and soon will be looking for leniency from the court.

In an investigation which has seen former Commissioner/Galardi bagman Lance Malone receive six years, Herrera get 51 months, and Galardi and Kincaid-Chauncey receive 30 months apiece, what do you suppose justice will look like to Erin Kenny?

She stole the most. She got caught. She's sung like a sickly canary.

But, like, she's still sorry for whoring out her office.

Can you forgive her?

John L. Smith's column appears Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. E-mail him at Smith@reviewjournal.com or call 383-0295.