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The owner of Cheetah's San Diego testified Thursday that he gave thousands of dollars to the campaigns of three local politicians in a bid to get them to repeal a "no-touch" ordinance. Michael Galardi, 43, testified in the trial of councilmen Ralph Inzunza and Michael Zucchet, lobbyist Lance Malone and David Cowan, a former aide to the late councilman Charles Lewis.

According to Galardi's testimony, he sent Malone to San Diego to lobby the city council to revert the "no-touch" law to "lewd and lascivious" standards. "I wanted him to come down to San Diego ý at any cost ý and get the law changed back to lewd and lascivious," Galardi said in his testimony. "Whatever it took to get the law changed, whatever they wanted, I would do," he said. Galardi pleaded guilty in 2003 to conspiracy to commit wire fraud along with Cheetah's San Diego manager John D'Intino.