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LAS VEGAS -- Brothel owner Joe Richards pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud/honest services fraud in U.S. District Court for offering a bribe to former Nye County Commissioner Candice Trummell, U.S. Attorney Greg Brower announced Monday.

U.S. District Judge Robert C. Jones set sentencing for 1:30 p.m. June 15. The plea came almost three years after the original charges were filed, but previous hearings were repeatedly delayed.

Richards, 75, admitted he offered Trummell $5,000 to persuade her to revise a Nye County ordinance prohibiting brothels within 300 yards of a road, which restricted him from building a brothel on property he owned at the corner of Homestead Road and Silver Street.

Trummell agreed to wear a bug to tape record Richards offering her the bribe on the pretext she needed money to attend law school. Richards, 75, used interstate wire communication -- a phone call from Trummell in Washington, D.C., to a land line subscribed to Mabel's Ranch Brothel in Crystal -- to execute the scheme, the complaint alleges.

An introduction to the complaint, dated March 2, 2006, states, "Agents of the FBI have been conducting a long-term investigation into allegations of political corruption involving members of the Nye County Commission and Joseph Maynard Richards."

Richards owns Mabel's Ranch and the Cherry Patch brothel in Crystal, along with the Cherry Patch II brothel in Lathrop Wells. In 2004, Richards opened the Kingdom, a nude dance club on the corner of Highway 160 and Homestead Road.

During the taped conversation, Richards and Trummell talked about a county requirement to build a brothel 300 yards off the roadway. Trummell indicated she could rewrite that section of the ordinance.

"You should rewrite it," Richards told Trummell.

"Well, give me a small advance on my law school thing and I can quit my job for a month or so, so I can rewrite it," Trummell replied.

"I can do that, you know," Richards said.

As the two walked to Trummell's car, Richards handed her $1,000, the complaint states. She turned the money over to the FBI.

During a meeting Aug. 15, 2005, Richards handed Trummell a memorandum of scholarship, offering to give her $5,000 so Trummell could attend the Boyd School of Law at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

Richards then provided Trummell with a check for $4,000 drawn on Wells Fargo Bank.

At the time the charges were announced, Richards' attorney, Leo Flangas, told the Associated Press his client would plead not guilty. "I'm surprised they brought the case," Flangas said.

On Monday, Flangas declined to comment, citing the sensitivity of the plea agreement.

Nye County District Attorney Bob Beckett said it was a federal case and declined comment.

Nye County Sheriff Tony DeMeo, who is a member of the Nye County Licensing and Liquor Board, anticipates a show cause hearing will be requested on why Richards' brothel license shouldn't be revoked once he is sentenced.

"Even though he pleaded guilty, the sentencing actually locks in his plea. Between now and then he can decide to change his plea, even though it's rare. But once he makes a plea, then we'd have to bring that in front of the board to consider what to do with his license," DeMeo said.

A decision on the license would be up to the liquor and licensing board. But DeMeo said, "Once the sentencing occurs, then at that time the sheriff's office would go in front of the board requesting a 'show cause.'"

Ironically, DeMeo said while Nye County Code states the board "shall" revoke a liquor license for a person convicted of a felony, county code 9.20.120 only says the board "may" refuse to grant a license for a brothel owner convicted of a felony.

Jones had "severe reservations" about letting Richards avoid prison time, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported, but prosecutor Steven Myhre said his age and undisclosed health problems were a factor in a possible sentence of probation. Jones also indicated Richards could be required to give up his brothel license as part of his sentence.

During a phone interview after the plea Monday, Trummell said it was the only time she was offered a bribe in her four-year term on the county commission from 2003 to 2007.

"I certainly wouldn't suspect it was his first attempt to bribe someone if he would attempt to bribe the daughter of a Baptist minister he has been at odds with for decades. It reflects he was pretty confident to offer these things," Trummell said. "He himself said to me that he had previously been investigated and possibly indicted by a former Nye County district attorney for trying to bribe a Nye County commissioner."

In fact, Richards and former Nye County Commissioner Bobby Revert, from Beatty, were arraigned in April 1990 when Richards was charged with offering Revert a $20,000 bribe, described as a loan enabling Revert to buy four mobile homes for miner housing in exchange for favorable treatment by the Nye County Liquor and Licensing Board.

The charges were dropped Sept. 14, 1990, after the indictment failed to list where the alleged crime occurred.

After that case, Richards boasted, "I've been investigated by the FBI and the IRS and I've come up clean as a whistle."

Trummell said she was introduced to Richards by former Pahrump Town Board member Paul Willis while she was running for county commissioner in 2002. She later met Richards when former Hollywood madam Heidi Fleiss suggested it.

"I knew he was guilty all along because I was involved in it. It's just unfortunate for me, my price for doing the right thing has been constant defamation of my character and my family's character in his so-called newspaper. I obviously didn't benefit from cooperating with the federal government," Trummell said.