Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

Performance anxiety and the mob

Who owns this place anyway?
Who owns this place anyway?

The mysterious owners of the Las Vegas–based Cheetahs strip joint in Kearny Mesa have opened a new legal front in federal court against San Diego police, claiming that raids by the cops have been illegally disrupting their business and caused performance anxiety among the strippers. But to whom do taxpayers write the check if the club wins its case?

“Vice officers made the entertainers queue up in two separate lines over a prolonged period depriving them of their liberty, time to perform, to submit to lengthy questioning including questions about tattoos, body piercings, and personal matters including their social security numbers,” says the April 7 complaint by Red Eyed Jack’s Sports Bar, Inc., the Nevada corporation that runs the infamous nude-entertainment emporium.

Sponsored
Sponsored

But who owns Red Eyed Jack’s? Back in May of 2003, when the FBI raided city-council offices, a Las Vegas native named Mike Galardi ostensibly controlled Cheetahs, then at the heart of what became the most sensational bribery scandal in San Diego history. He copped a plea in the case, testified against the city-council defendants, did two years in federal prison, and dropped out of sight. Galardi “was tied into organized crime,” FBI agent Leonard Davey, in charge of the investigation, recently told U-T San Diego in a post-retirement interview.

Galardi’s father Jack founded the family’s stripping enterprise after humble beginnings in the hardscrabble Colorado coal-mining town of Trinidad. Before starting a prosperous chain of nude nightclubs in the South and later moving into Vegas, Jack and his brother Angel had been convicted and imprisoned for breaking into California post offices to steal blank money orders. Later, Las Vegas police linked Jack and his operation to the Gambino crime family, an allegation his lawyers denied. Son Mike’s name began to appear on permit records. Then, in 2004, after the Cheetahs case broke, Jack sued Mike, claiming his son embezzled $530,000 from the family’s Las Vegas branch of Cheetahs to finance Jaguars, his own $15 million club in Vegas. Jack Galardi died on his sprawling Circle G Ranch in Georgia in December 2012 at age 81, according to an obituary in the Las Vegas Review Journal.

Nevada records have it that South Carolina–based attorney Suzanne Coe, who long represented Jack Galardi and his various enterprises, is president of Red Eyed Jack’s. Reached by phone in the fall of 2006, she told us that she personally owned 5 percent of the corporation and intended to acquire the remaining interest from the senior Galardi. A San Diego attorney for Red Eyed Jack’s said he would forward a message to her, but a callback did not materialize.

The latest copy of the Reader

Please enjoy this clickable Reader flipbook. Linked text and ads are flash-highlighted in blue for your convenience. To enhance your viewing, please open full screen mode by clicking the icon on the far right of the black flipbook toolbar.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Tigers In Cairo owes its existence to Craigslist

But it owes its name to a Cure tune and a tattoo
Next Article

Poway’s schools, faced with money squeeze, fined for voter mailing

$105 million bond required payback of nearly 10 times that amount
Who owns this place anyway?
Who owns this place anyway?

The mysterious owners of the Las Vegas–based Cheetahs strip joint in Kearny Mesa have opened a new legal front in federal court against San Diego police, claiming that raids by the cops have been illegally disrupting their business and caused performance anxiety among the strippers. But to whom do taxpayers write the check if the club wins its case?

“Vice officers made the entertainers queue up in two separate lines over a prolonged period depriving them of their liberty, time to perform, to submit to lengthy questioning including questions about tattoos, body piercings, and personal matters including their social security numbers,” says the April 7 complaint by Red Eyed Jack’s Sports Bar, Inc., the Nevada corporation that runs the infamous nude-entertainment emporium.

Sponsored
Sponsored

But who owns Red Eyed Jack’s? Back in May of 2003, when the FBI raided city-council offices, a Las Vegas native named Mike Galardi ostensibly controlled Cheetahs, then at the heart of what became the most sensational bribery scandal in San Diego history. He copped a plea in the case, testified against the city-council defendants, did two years in federal prison, and dropped out of sight. Galardi “was tied into organized crime,” FBI agent Leonard Davey, in charge of the investigation, recently told U-T San Diego in a post-retirement interview.

Galardi’s father Jack founded the family’s stripping enterprise after humble beginnings in the hardscrabble Colorado coal-mining town of Trinidad. Before starting a prosperous chain of nude nightclubs in the South and later moving into Vegas, Jack and his brother Angel had been convicted and imprisoned for breaking into California post offices to steal blank money orders. Later, Las Vegas police linked Jack and his operation to the Gambino crime family, an allegation his lawyers denied. Son Mike’s name began to appear on permit records. Then, in 2004, after the Cheetahs case broke, Jack sued Mike, claiming his son embezzled $530,000 from the family’s Las Vegas branch of Cheetahs to finance Jaguars, his own $15 million club in Vegas. Jack Galardi died on his sprawling Circle G Ranch in Georgia in December 2012 at age 81, according to an obituary in the Las Vegas Review Journal.

Nevada records have it that South Carolina–based attorney Suzanne Coe, who long represented Jack Galardi and his various enterprises, is president of Red Eyed Jack’s. Reached by phone in the fall of 2006, she told us that she personally owned 5 percent of the corporation and intended to acquire the remaining interest from the senior Galardi. A San Diego attorney for Red Eyed Jack’s said he would forward a message to her, but a callback did not materialize.

Comments
Sponsored

The latest copy of the Reader

Please enjoy this clickable Reader flipbook. Linked text and ads are flash-highlighted in blue for your convenience. To enhance your viewing, please open full screen mode by clicking the icon on the far right of the black flipbook toolbar.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Pie pleasure at Queenstown Public House

A taste of New Zealand brings back happy memories
Next Article

Southern California Asks: 'What Is Vinivia?' Meet the New Creator-First Livestreaming App

Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

This Week’s Reader This Week’s Reader