The most amazing revelations in the Strippergate trial continue to be the legal ones. Paying a traffic ticket is a hideous experience in Las Vegas. I will never forget taking a friend of mine to pay her ticket downtown a few years ago. All of the parking surrounding the government office had meters with maximums far shorter than the amount of time it took to wait in line to pay the ticket. Far shorter. Despite running out to plug coins into the thing a few times during our long wait, our most efficient city service, meter patrol, snagged me with a parking ticket for the five minutes we were over during the 5-6 hours we waited to pay my friend's citation. I knew I was running a risk at that point, but I was out of change and, of course, the clerk said he was not allowed to make change. A very smart way to guarantee repeat business. The system is so notorious and bad that some people would rather go to jail if pulled over than face going downtown to pay a ticket.

Oh, if I had only known about "family and friends" special court day where the juiced in Las Vegas can not only pay without the wait and hassle but legally get their tickets reduced and citations changed to avoid points. That's right. The Review-Journal quotes the district attorney describing this special court session as "when certain people are allowed to go before the court and negotiate tickets." Who are these "certain people"? Well, it turned out to include employees of Cheetah's who became family and friends to one prosecutor (you know the folks paid by the taxpayers to stop corruption) who took care of their tickets with the traffic judge. The judge in this case was Judge Tony Abbatangelo who tells the Review- Journal that he thought nothing of this special court day for VIP citizens: "maybe because growing up here, I know we've always done it that way."