Prosecutors have asked a federal judge for stiffer sentences due to perjury for former Clark County commissioners Dario Herrera and Mary Kincaid-Chauncey who were convicted of taking bribes from a Las Vegas strip club owner and other related charges.
Prosecutors are seeking to increase potential sentences on the two officials because they committed perjury during their corruption trial which ended last month, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal. The pair was convicted of wire fraud and extortion charges for accepting bribes from Cheetah’s strip club owner Michael Galardi who cut a deal with prosecutors to testify against Herrera and Kincaid-Chauncey.
In their motions, prosecutors asked U.S. District Judge Larry Hicks for a two-level increase in the seriousness of the defendants’ offense which is used in sentencing guidelines. Sentencing is scheduled for Aug. 21.
According to the motions, such an increase is permitted if the defendant “willfully obstructed justice during the course of the investigation, prosecution or sentence.”
Prosecutors said in their motions that “the evidence proves that the defendant willfully testified falsely at trial as to material matters.” Among the instances of perjury or lies attributed to Herrera during the trial by the documents were:
• He waited for Galardi at the strip club on Aug. 29, 2001 to discuss official business.
• He did not receive oral sex from a stripper.
• He was never paid by Galardi or his associate, Lance Malone.
• He solicited a small loan from Malone instead of a three-month loan from Galardi.
Prosecutors also claimed several other such instances of perjury from Kincaid-Chauncey such as when she claimed not to have received money from Malone at a restaurant on Aug. 2, 2001 and when she claimed the $5,000 she received from Malone was a campaign contribution and not a bribe.
Douglas McNabb, defense attorney who specializes in criminal cases, said that the two defendants likely faced 33 to 41 months in prison under federal sentencing guidelines which take into consideration a defendant’s criminal history and seriousness of the offense.
But if the judge agrees with the prosecutors’ motions, McNabb said the pair could receive between 41 and 51 months in prison.
