Nevada- When federal authorities released documents this month accusing longtime brothel owner Joe Richards of trying to bribe Nye County Commission Chairwoman Candice Trummell, it quickly became the talk of the town in Pahrump.
But to former County Commissioner Cameron McRae, the big news about Richards wasn't news at all.
"It's about time they get him. He offered me money two or three times, and I went to the FBI and got the cold shoulder," said McRae, who served on the commission from 1991 through 2002, several of those years as chairman.
McRae said the first incident occurred in the early 1990s, when Richards unsuccessfully tried to entice him to run for state Assembly with $5,000 to help fund his campaign.
Several years later, McRae said, Richards called and offered him $20,000 to vote for a Pahrump town boundary change that would have allowed Richards to build a brothel on land he owns at the southern edge of the community.
Asked how the phone conversation ended, McRae said, "He couldn't buy my vote. The answer was no."
The 72-year-old Richards, who holds licenses for three of the seven legal brothels in Nye County, could not be reached for comment.
His attorney, Leo Flangas, did not respond to three calls for comment.
Brothel industry lobbyist George Flint defended Richards, whom he described as both a client and a "good friend."
"Joe never offered anyone $20,000. That isn't Joe's M.O.," Flint said. "That's just too much money."
Flint expressed similar doubts about the current bribery accusation against Richards, which came from an FBI sting last year, according to federal court documents.
Trummell, who took McRae's seat in the 2002 election, agreed to wear audio and video recording devices to several face-to-face meetings with Richards between June and November 2005.
A complaint sworn out by FBI Special Agent David Linterman said Richards paid Trummell a total of $5,000 in bribes under the guise that the money was a scholarship to UNLV's Boyd School of Law. Linterman wrote in the complaint that for the payments, Richards expected Trummell's support on several issues, including his long-sought brothel in Pahrump.
When asked for his opinion of the government's case against Richards, attorney Michael Cristalli, who defended Sandra Murphy in the Ted Binion murder trial, questioned whether the evidence in the complaint alone was enough to deliver a jury conviction.
"I don't believe what's in the complaint is enough to carry the day," Cristalli said.
He said that he would be curious to see the unedited content of the conversations between Richards and the 27-year-old Trummell. What was omitted by the prosecution might serve the cause of the defense. If that is the case, Cristalli said, Richards and his attorney, Flangas, might have a good chance at filing a pretrial motion seeking to have the charges dismissed.
Flint agreed. "The government says (the edited parts) are non-pertinent conversations, but I don't know that," he said. "I think this is very defensible for Mr. Richards.
"Maybe he just wanted to help someone. Maybe he should have been a little more careful who he tried to help," Flint said. "It's still a (expletive) witch hunt, and my client is very used to witch hunts."
Richards' preliminary hearing has been set for March 22. Until then, he will be electronically monitored while under house arrest, authorities said.
Richards' one-time business associate, former "Hollywood Madam" Heidi Fleiss, could only marvel at the allegations Tuesday.
"Can you imagine going down for five grand? How embarrassing," Fleiss said. "Maybe for five million (dollars), but not five thousand. It's like going down for half a joint."
In November, Richards and Fleiss announced plans to convert one of his properties into a brothel catering to women. Their business affiliation ended about a week later.
Fleiss, who now lives in Pahrump, insists she still plans to hire about 20 male prostitutes and open Heidi's Stud Farm on her own if she can persuade Nye County commissioners to grant her a brothel license.
For that reason, Fleiss said she could not be happier she and Richards parted company when they did.
"Our business ethics and principles, there's nothing in common between us," she said.
