SAN DIEGO - A year after a judge dismissed guilty verdicts against a former councilman involved in a strip club scandal, federal prosecutors are appealing the case.
Prosecutors filed an appeal this week in the case against former councilman Michael Zucchet who had been convicted on nine counts of corruption on charges stemming from his involvement with a lobbyist for the Cheetah’s Club who allegedly paid off Zucchet to water down strip club regulations. The case prompted him to resign his council seat, NBC4 in San Diego reported.
But just four months later, U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Miller dismissed the jury’s seven-count guilty verdicts and granted a new trial on two other counts. The judge ruled that there was no evidence of an attempt to deprive citizens of Zucchet’s “honest services.”
Zucchet and former Councilman Ralph Inzunza were convicted in the case. Inzunza was found guilty in the alleged scheme to repeal the city’s ordinance barring touching between strippers and their customers.
Jerry Coughlan, Zucchet’s defense attorney, predicted the government’s appeal will fail.
