PAHRUMP, May 23 (UPI) -- Former "Hollywood Madam" Heidi Fleiss says she's "not a rat" but will cooperate in the case of a Nevada brothel owner accused of trying to bribe a politician.
Fleiss, who now lives in Pahrump, Nev., told the Las Vegas Review-Journal the FBI wants to talk to her about her former partner, Maynard "Joe" Richards, who has pleaded innocent to two counts of wire fraud stemming from an alleged attempt to bribe Nye County Commission Chairwoman Candice Trummell.
Richards' federal trial was supposed to start Tuesday, but was delayed to give both sides time to sift through a mound of evidence, the newspaper said.
Fleiss told the Review-Journal she is sure her voice was on some Richards' 7,700 telephone conversations recorded by authorities, since they talked every day for the past three years until they ended their collaboration last month.
The government's case against Richards stems from his attempt to have a county zoning ordinance changed so he could build a brothel near the Chicken Ranch and Sheri's Ranch. He currently owns three brothels in Nye County.
Bribing a public official is "far worse than anything I ever did in my whole life," Fleiss said.
Fleiss told the newspaper she was still making plans for "Heidi's Stud Farm," which would be Nevada's first brothel employing men to service women.
