The state Supreme Court reinstated old criminal charges Thursday against two longtime Seattle strip-club owners and two associates. The court is again alleging that Frank Colacurcio Sr., Frank Colacurcio Jr., Gil Conte and Marsha Furfaro hid City Council donations by making them through other people.
The original charges were dismissed by a King County Superior Court last year. The presiding judge ruled that state law allows only civil penalties when campaign laws are broken.
According to the Seattle Post Intelligencer, the revived case has now been sent back to King County for the possibility of a criminal trial.
The Colacurcios' allegedly tried to get the City Council to approve a parking-lot expansion for their club, called Rick's, after several denials. According to the report, the four were accused of outspending campaign-contribution limits by getting friends, relatives and others to donate to three 2003 City Council candidates, then secretly reimbursing them.
Prosecutors, it seems, have now gone out of their way to charge the four men, looking beyond campaign-finance laws for a more general law that makes filing false documents a crime.
