PORTLAND — Gary Bryant, 70 and suffering from numerous breathing and heart ailments, lay on a gurney beside the defense table in a federal courtroom as a judge sentenced him for cheating the IRS out of $728,000 in taxes while promoting prostitution as a manger of Portland-area strip clubs.
Bryant, dressed in a gray fleece sweater and jeans, rolled onto his right side as his lawyer held a microphone to his mouth to allow him to address U.S. District Judge Michael H. Simon.
“I’m very sorry all this has happened. I’d give everything to not have got involved,” Bryant said. He spoke of his 14-year-old daughter, who was in the courtroom, and his desire to spend as much time with her as possible, calling her “my whole life.”
Federal prosecutors Ryan Bounds and Seth Uram said the string of strip clubs functioned as “brothels,” and Bryant lived at and managed clubs where prostitution was rampant. Two co-defendants were sentenced to two years in prison and ringleader Lawrence Owen was sentenced to time-served of two years and six months in custody.
“All the conspirators in the case carried out one of the largest prostitution and tax cheating schemes in the history of Portland,” prosecutors said in the government’s sentencing memo.
In March, Bryant pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud the United States. Despite his infirmities and his lesser role in the crime, prosecutors argued that Bryant should spend time in prison and urged the judge to sentence him to a year and a day to provide deterrence for tax fraud schemes.
“This is especially true of the Portland metropolitan area, which has one of the highest concentrations of strip clubs – notorious vectors for tax fraud – in the country,” the prosecutors wrote. “It would severely undermine the deterrent value of this prosecution if a manager in this sprawling and long-running conspiracy of exploitation and fraud were to avoid imprisonment altogether.”
Eight strip clubs and two adult video shops in the Portland area served as fronts for a highly profitable prostitution ring from 2006 to 2010, according to the government. ATMs were placed in each of the businesses to allow customers to use cash to spend on prostitution in private rooms in the clubs. During a five-year investigation, more than $10 million passed through the businesses’ on-site ATMs, Uram said.
Among the strip clubs involved were The Landing Strip (formerly known as Pop-A-Top) at 6210 N.E. Columbia Blvd., The Oh! Zone at 6218 N.E. Columbia Blvd, Sugar Shack at 6729 N.E. Killingsworth St., Peek-A-Boos (formerly Chantilly Lace) at 6729 N.E. Killingsworth St., Dillingers Pub at 13305 S.E. McLoughlin Blvd. in Milwaukie, Sugar Shack Too at 13331 S.E. McLoughlin Blvd. and Tommy’s at 3532 S.E. Powell Blvd. and Tommy’s Too at 10335 S.E. Foster Road.
Investigators found 39,000 dancer slips. Each slip had the date and time of the encounter and the dancer’s stage name. The dancer signed that she was serving as a private contractor, leasing a room for the purpose of performing “one-on-one modeling shows,” Uram told the court. Customers had to pay “the house” $60 in cash and the dancer at least $100 for a 30-minute private show, the affidavit said.
Though the slips stated dancers were to engage in no “sex of any kind,” Uram said that was just a “fig leaf'” to minimize liability for the prostitution that was expected to occur. Cash was required for the shows to shield the owner from scrutiny from the Internal Revenue Service.
Bryant’s lawyer, Robert Salisbury, argued for a sentence of six months of home detention and three years on probation, as recommended by pretrial services evaluators, considering his client’s deteriorating health.
Bryant lives in a small barn house in Boring, has few assets and is cared for by his estranged wife, who lives in the main house, and his daughter, Salisbury told the court. It takes him 15 minutes to walk 15 steps, he said, as Bryant lay on the gurney beside him coughing.
His daughter addressed the court through tears, “My dad means a lot to me,” she said. “I’m with him all the time to make sure he’s OK.”
Simon accepted the prosecution’s request, sentencing Bryant to a year and a day, but he delayed the start for at least a year.
The attorneys from both sides were directed to return in a year for a status hearing before the judge to see if Bryant’s medical condition improves.
Bryant, breathing heavily at times, remained on the gurney throughout Monday’s hearing. Two Willamette Valley Transport workers then wheeled him out of the courthouse to their waiting van.
“He’s already on home detention for the rest of his life,” Salisbury said.
