Elder Colacurcio pleads guilty, gets $10,000 fine

Frank Colacurcio Sr., 90, was fined $10,000 Monday after pleading guilty to misdemeanor and felony charges in the so-called "Strippergate" campaign-finance scandal.

The strip-club magnate sat solemnly beside his attorney in King County Superior Court Monday as he was sentenced for flouting Seattle's campaign-finance laws.

Specifically, Colacurcio, like his son Frank Colacurcio Jr., has acknowledged skirting campaign-contribution limits by reimbursing friends, relatives and others who made donations to 2003 Seattle City Council campaigns.

Colacurcio Jr., 46, was sentenced last week to a $10,000 fine after pleading guilty to the same charges. Father and son last week also each agreed to pay $55,000 in a settlement with the Seattle Ethics and Elections Commission.

The guilty pleas and settlement with the ethics commission appear to conclude a scandal that began when dozens of friends, business associates and relatives of the Colacurcios poured at least $39,000 into the re-election campaigns of then-Seattle City Council members Judy Nicastro, Jim Compton and Heidi Wills.

The donations were made as the Colacurcios sought City Council approval to expand the parking lot at Rick's, a strip club in the Lake City neighborhood.

Gil Conte, 74, a former lounge singer, pleaded guilty in Superior Court last week to a misdemeanor charge of conspiring with the Colacurcios. He was fined $1,000.

Nancy Bartley: 206-464-8522 or nbartley@seattletimes.com