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Strip club trial to open Monday

The Gold Club is Atlanta's highest-profile strip bar

From Art Harris
CNN National Investigative Correspondent

ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- His lawyers say Steve Kaplan is a family man and savvy businessman who courted celebrity patrons to make Atlanta's Gold Club among the hottest strip bars in the country.

But Monday, federal prosecutors will tell a jury that Kaplan's red carpet was so dirty that he belongs in prison for up to 40 years.

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"Bring it on," said Kaplan's lawyer, Steve Sadow, who leads a team of some of Atlanta's priciest criminal lawyers in representing the club owner. Kaplan is picking up the tab for defending six associates who also face federal racketeering charges.

Prosecutors are expected to argue that Gold Club managers fleeced credit card users, bribed police and paid strippers to have sex with high-profile athletes to boost the club's reputation as a celebrity night spot.

"We plan to present evidence that will be strong and conclusive about all defendants in the case," Assistant U.S. Attorney Art Leach, the government's chief prosecutor, told CNN.

The indictment accuses Kaplan of prostitution, credit card fraud, obstruction of justice, extortion, money laundering, bribing police and paying protection money to the New York-based Gambino organized crime family, headed by convicted mobsters John Gotti and his son.

A jury of seven men and five women will hear the case. Other defendants will face trial at a later date.

The trial is expected to highlight Atlanta's burgeoning strip club business, which racks up as much as $100 million a year and employs more than 3,000 people. Kaplan's Gold Club raked in annual revenues of as much as $20 million. All of it was earned legally, his lawyers contend.

"You have a very upscale operation, serving champagne instead of beer; where people expect Mercedes, not pickup trucks; that caters to the rich and famous, not the guy coming off a construction site wearing a T-shirt and needing a bath. That's how you make money," defense lawyer Don Samuels told CNN.

On the witness list are several star athletes who are expected to testify they had sex with Gold Club strippers. CNN has learned these will include NBA stars Patrick Ewing, Dikembe Mutombo, former basketball player Dennis Rodman, and football stars Terrell Davis and Jamal Anderson.

Prosecutors contend that Kaplan paid the dancers to perform sex acts for celebrities, part of a strategy to keep big names coming back. The government will present a list of former strippers, club employees and organized crime associates to make its case.

"In a case like this, the government generally needs insider witnesses, and I suspect they have them," said Atlanta lawyer Jack Martin, whose clients have included Richard Jewell, the man wrongly suspected of setting off a bomb during the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta.

The Gold Club charges were brought under the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, the government's principal weapon against organized crime. Defense lawyers say the government's witnesses are largely criminals themselves who agreed to testify to win shorter sentences.

Gold Club owner Steve Kaplan and former dancer Jacklyn Bush leave the federal courthouse in Atlanta

"The government case is based on a group of people who are lying and have reason to lie," defense lawyer Bruce Morris said. "It's kind of like the game show 'Let's Make a Deal' -- 'Y'all are facing prison, so come on down and let's make a deal.'"

John A. Gotti, known as "Junior," is expected to be called to testify about his relationship with Kaplan. Gotti lawyer Linda Sheffield said the two know each other socially but have no business relationship, and her client will take the Fifth Amendment if called to testify.

Federal agents raided the Gold Club in 1999, seizing boxes of records and arresting Kaplan. He was re-arrested in 2000 and accused of ordering associates "to meet, intimidate and tape record" government witnesses.

Despite the publicity surrounding the trial, the club's parking lot remains routinely filled with limousines.

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