Georgia- www.ajc.com – Strip club king Jack Galardi wants $2 million to compensate him for the smears against his name.

The owner of the Crazy Horse Saloon, the Pink Pony South and a slew of other cabarets nationwide sued his former lawyer and landlord this month because of their still-pending 2007 lawsuit accusing Galardi of being a racketeer, a purveyor of prostitution and a briber of public officials.

Galardi says the accusations are a lie and he is telling his former lawyer Larry James White —- who had represented him on business affairs —- to prove them in court.

“They filed a complaint that we thought was totally malicious,” said Aubrey Villines, the lawyer who filed the defamation lawsuit in Fulton County Superior Court. “They dug up all this dirt and made up all this dirt … and it was either false or total embellishment.”

But can you damage the reputation of a man who was sued by a contestant in the Miss Nude World International pageant, who claimed he blackballed her when she refused to let him lick whipped cream from her body at a pageant golf tournament?

Police and prosecutors also have investigated whether the now 77-year-old Galardi was involved in the illegal drug trade with the head of a Nevada motorcycle gang, ignored prostitution at his clubs or was an organized crime associate. He never has been charged with crimes related to those accusations.

For Galardi to be successful, he would have to prove to a jury that the criminal accusations in the lawsuit are false and they have actually damaged his reputation, meaning the statements caused people to have a lower opinion of the strip club magnate, said Tom Clyde, an attorney specializing in libel law with Dow Lohnes, which also represents The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. That will not be an easy task, he said.

“People working in industries that are not held in high esteem have an uphill battle in defamation cases,” he said. “If you have a bad reputation to start with, your chances of prevailing in a libel case are very slim.”

But Villines says Galardi’s reputation is still stainable. Villines noted that his client may only have to show that he has —- or had —- a good reputation in the strip club business to meet the defamation test. Galardi has 15 clubs from Nevada to Florida to Atlanta.

Attempts to reach White, who according to court papers was served with Galardi’s lawsuit on March 16, were unsuccessful. His lawyer, Kenneth Sokolov, declined to comment.

Villines said White’s lawsuit was malicious from its conception. It arose because Galardi decided he no longer wanted to lease property for the Crazy Horse Saloon from White and his business partners and got permits to build and reopen the club next door, Villines said.

White filed the lawsuit in an unsuccessful attempt to derail the reopening of the club, Villines said.

Clyde said he does not see how the Galardi lawsuit could prevail because laws generally prevent anyone from being sued successfully because of allegations made in a court action. Villines, however, said the defamation claim could circumvent the legal protection because the 2007 lawsuit was filed in bad faith and because White had reintroduced the lawsuit as evidence in a proceeding involving the reopening of the club before Forest Park officials. Clyde also noted that commentary at a city proceeding also is generally privileged, or shielded from lawsuits.

Villines said his client was determined to make White pay for calling him a crook.

“We aren’t saying there aren’t things that are wrong that have gone on in the clubs, but you can’t catch them all,” Villines said. “Mr. Galardi makes so much money doing what he does legally that he wouldn’t risk it by doing something that was illegal … he would never jeopardize that. Period.”