Attorney seeks wiretap details in Colacurcio case

The attorney for racketeering suspect Frank Colacurcio Sr. wants a federal judge to order prosecutors to turn over details of wiretaps and other court-ordered surveillance of his client — information the U.S. attorney's office won't even acknowledge exists — so he can challenge the government's attempt to freeze and forfeit Colacurcio's strip-club holdings.

Lawyer Irwin Schwartz argued Monday that the government "opened the door" for the disclosures by going public with its three-year investigation into allegations of prostitution-based racketeering, money laundering and tax fraud by the 90-year-old Colacurcio Sr., his son Frank Jr. and several business associates.

Schwartz, attorneys for five Colacurcio business associates and federal prosecutors Monday attended an unusual hearing into what is normally a very secret process — a federal grand-jury investigation.

U.S. District Judge Ricardo Martinez initially closed the hearing to the public and expelled a reporter, only to reopen it without explanation a few minutes later.

The investigation was revealed two weeks ago when the FBI, Seattle police and the Internal Revenue Service conducted searches of Colacurcio's four strip clubs, the talent agency that supplies them with dancers and the senior Colacurcio's home.

Simultaneously, prosecutors obtained an unusual — and public — temporary restraining order from Martinez preventing any of the targets from selling their interest in the strip-club properties pending anticipated federal indictments and forfeiture proceedings.

The order expired Monday, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Todd Greenberg asked Martinez to extend it through a preliminary injunction while the investigation continues.

But Schwartz and attorneys for the other targets want prosecutors to justify the restraining order, and they say that means the government must turn over underlying investigative documents that remain under seal. They include, Schwartz believes, applications and orders for wiretaps at Colacurcio's home.

The release of surveillance information could jeopardize an investigation, and it is rarely something prosecutors will talk about before indictments are issued. But Schwartz argued that the law says he gets the documents and "that the government must make a hard choice" — it can risk the investigation or withdraw its request to freeze the strip-club holdings in order to keep those documents out of his hands.

Greenberg told the court that he would not engage Schwartz in "speculation and mind-reading" about what those sealed documents might contain. Nor would he agree that Schwartz is entitled to whatever that may be.

He suggested that Martinez could issue the injunction by relying solely on the documents that have been made public — a 99-page affidavit by FBI Special Agent Cory Cote detailing what law-enforcement officials described as "rampant prostitution" at the strip clubs and the Colacurcios' methods of profiting from it.

Martinez ordered the attorneys to brief the court on the issue. Meantime, both sides agreed to an extension of the temporary restraining order pending another hearing later this week.

Mike Carter: 206-464-3706 or mcarter@seattletimes.com