LAS VEGAS - - Brothel owner MAYNARD MARTIN RICHARDS, aka Joe Richards, was indicted by the Federal Grand Jury today on wire fraud charges for devising and executing a scheme to cause the Nye County Commission to revise an ordinance that would benefit his business interests, announced Daniel G. Bogden, United States Attorney for the District of Nevada.

RICHARDS, age 72, of Crystal, Nevada, is charged with two counts of Fraud by Wire, Deprivation of Honest Services. If convicted of the charges, he faces up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine on each count.

RICHARDS owns three of seven brothels authorized for operation in Nye County, Mabel’s Ranch, Cherry Patch Ranch, Cherry Patch II Ranch, as well as a massage parlor known as the Madame Butterfly Bath and Massage Salon, and a strip club known as The Kingdom. The Indictment alleges that in June and August 2005, RICHARDS paid Nye County Commissioner, Candice Trummell, a total of $5,000 under the guise of a scholarship to attend UNLV law school. The Indictment states that Trummell was also serving as a cooperating witness with the United States Government. In return for the payments to Trummell, RICHARDS allegedly induced the commissioner to revise a Nye County Ordinance that imposed a land use restriction preventing him from building a brothel on property he owns near Pahrump, Nevada, at the corner of Homestead Road and Silver Street. The restriction - referred to as the 300 yard rule - prevents the building of a legal brothel within 300 yards of the frontage to a road or highway.

The Indictment states that RICHARDS allegedly used the artifice of the “Richards Family Trust” to conceal the payments to Commissioner Trummell. RICHARDS also provided Commissioner Trummell a memorandum captioned “Memorandum of Scholarship,” which stated falsely and deceptively that he had paid her $5,000 for the purpose of a scholarship, when in fact, the money was paid for the purpose of influencing her in a corrupt fashion and to use her position of public trust to revise the ordinance. The Indictment also alleges that RICHARDS communicated and attempted to communicate with other Nye County Commissioners to advance the revised and corrupted ordinance to a vote before the full Commission.

The Wire Fraud counts are premised on a November 10, 2005 telephone call between Commissioner Trummell in Washington D.C. and RICHARDS in Nye County, and a December 13, 2005 email from Commissioner “A” to Commissioner Trummell containing the corrupted ordinance.

RICHARDS is scheduled to be arraigned on the Indictment on April 7, 2006, at 8:30 a.m. before U.S. Magistrate Judge Robert Johnston.
This case is being investigated by the FBI and United States Postal Inspection Service, and prosecuted by First Assistant United States Attorney Steven W. Myhre and Assistant United States Attorney Kimberly Frayn.

The public is reminded that a Indictment contains only charges and is not evidence of guilt. The defendant is presumed innocent and entitled to a fair trial at which the government has the burden of proving guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

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