LAS VEGAS – Closing arguments began Monday in the federal corruption trial of two former Clark County commissioners who could face prison if a jury finds them guilty of accepting bribes from a former striptease club owner.

“Dario Herrera [pictured] and Mary Kincaid-Chauncey were two corrupt public officials,” prosecutor Daniel Schiess declared as he began summarizing wiretaps, videotapes, documents and testimony that he said proved the two former commissioners sold their votes for cash, campaign contributions and sex.

Schiess characterized Herrera and Kincaid-Chauncey as savvy politicians who, following their indictments in May 2003, tailored their testimony and told “partial truths” to defend themselves.

The prosecutor quickly acknowleged credibility problems surrounding the prosecution’s star witness, former strip club owner Michael Galardi, who pleaded guilty to bribing officials and testified in return for a promise of leniency in sentencing.

Schiess said FBI wiretaps recorded from 1999 to 2003 revealed the real truth behind what he called a scheme to defraud Clark County residents of honest government.

“Tape recordings, witness testimonies, stand in this courtroom. They are not erased by the credibility of Mr. Galardi,” Schiess told the U.S. District Court jury. “When a case is born in hell, you’re not going to find heavenly messengers as witnesses.”

Defense lawyers for Herrera, a young former star in Democratic politics who lost a bid for Congress in 2002, and Kincaid-Chauncey, a grandmotherly flower shop owner and political veteran, maintain that Galardi lied when he testified he provided cash and sexual favors to Herrera and cash and family favors to Kincaid-Chauncey.

Herrera, 32, and Kincaid-Chauncey, 67, have each pleaded not guilty to conspiracy, wire fraud and extortion under color of official right charges that could get them 45 years in prison if convicted on all counts.

Herrera testified he received sex from Galardi employees, and said he received a $10,000 check as a campaign contribution. But he denied ever receiving cash bribes.

Kincaid-Chauncey acknowledged asking Galardi twice for money – once to help send her grandson to a competition ski racing school, and another time to help her son pay campaign costs for his unsuccessful bid for a North Las Vegas City Council seat. She also helped set up a strip club outing at a Galardi club for her son, an Air Force captain.

Schiess called Kincaid-Chauncey “subtle,” “smart” and “wiley” in admitting to the FBI that she accepted Galardi money for the benefit of her relatives. But the prosecutor said Kincaid-Chauncey failed to account for at least three other times he said she took money.

The prosecutor summoned images from six weeks of sometimes lurid testimony about Herrera accepting lap dances, sexual favors and money after becoming, at age 25, the youngest person ever elected to the county commission in 1998.

“Ladies and gentlemen, as you sit here today, is there any doubt (Herrera) … used his office to satisfy his own greed, to satisfy his own lust, to satisfy his own wants and wishes?” Schiess asked the jury.

Lawyers for Kincaid-Chauncey and Herrera could begin their closing arguments Tuesday. The case could go to the jury on Wednesday.

Another former commissioner, Erin Kenny, pleaded guilty in the case and testified for the prosecution in return for a promise of leniency at sentencing. But the 45-year-old mother of five denied Galardi’s claim that she provided oral sex to him six times while she was on the commission.

Galardi claimed on the witness stand that he spent hundreds of thousands of dollars bribing judges, lawyers, police, political figures and public officials, besides the $200,000 he claimed he paid Herrera, and the $85,000 he said he paid Kincaid-Chauncey. None of those other officials has been charged.

Galardi said much of the money was funneled through former Clark County Commissioner Lance Malone, who Galardi hired as his lobbyist after Malone lost a bid for re-election.

The government contends that in return, the commissioners voted to further Galardi’s goals – including opening a $15 million, 20,000-square-foot strip palace he built just off the Las Vegas Strip, expanding laws allowing close contact between dancers and patrons, and limiting competition.

Galardi pleaded guilty and Malone was convicted in a related case in San Diego on extortion, wire fraud conspiracy and wire fraud charges after he was found guilty of delivering cash to San Diego City Council members on behalf of Galardi.

Malone remains free while appealing his conviction and a three-year prison sentence in the San Diego case, which also resulted in the conviction of two city council members. Malone did not testify in the Las Vegas trial. He will be tried separately in August.

The jury in Las Vegas learned Monday of Malone’s conviction, but it has not heard that the federal judge who heard the San Diego case last year expressed doubts about Galardi’s credibility and granted a new trial to one of the convicted council members.