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Strip club owner accused of plotting to kill Arlington mayor is indicted

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Ohio

FORT WORTH -- The co-owner of an Arlington strip club suspected of trying to hire hit men to kill Arlington Mayor Robert Cluck and another city official was indicted Wednesday by a federal grand jury.

Flashdancer co-owner Ryan Walker Grant, 34, of Kennedale faces a charge of murder-for hire in that case and a separate charge for allegedly transferring a semiautomatic rifle to a known felon. If convicted, he faces up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine for each charge.

Grant has been in custody since his arrest April 9. U.S. Magistrate Judge Jeffrey Cureton ruled April 20 at a detention hearing at the federal courthouse in Fort Worth that Grant would pose a flight risk and a danger to the community if released.

FBI Special Agent Matthew Wilkins testified at the hearing that several days after Grant first contacted an intermediary and expressed interest in having Cluck and attorney Tom Brandt killed, he gave the final green light April 9 for Cluck's murder. Grant told the intermediary, who was actually an informant for the Drug Enforcement Administration, that he wanted the men killed for their roles in blocking his plans to reopen the north Arlington strip club, which had been closed under an agreement in a nuisance lawsuit brought by the city and the Texas attorney general's office.

"Let's do the mayor. Let's hit him tomorrow," Grant told the informant, Wilkins testified.

FBI agents arrested Grant a few hours later and seized 22 guns, two bulletproof vests and nearly $150,000.

J. Warren St. John, Grant's attorney, said Thursday that his client "maintains his innocence" and will plead not guilty at his arraignment, which St. John expects to be scheduled for Wednesday.

Nuisance site

Flashdancer, at East Randol Mill Road and Texas 360, closed for a year in January. Authorities cited the prevalence of drugs, prostitution and assaults at the club in labeling it a nuisance.

Police Chief Theron Bowman has revoked the club's sexually oriented business license on the grounds that Flashdancer filed a misleading application with the city and allowed rampant sexual contact between employees and customers. Losing the license would hinder the club's reopening.

Grant told the informant that he would lose about $800,000 a year if the club remained closed, Wilkins testified.

In phone calls, text messages and visits that began April 3, Grant asked the informant to hire hit men from Mexico so that they could come to the U.S. anonymously, do the jobs and return home, Wilkins testified.

Grant stressed that he didn't want the hit men to know his name, telling the informant that "he did not want to do 25 years for nobody," Wilkins testified.

In May, St. John and Assistant U.S. Attorney Chris Wolfe agreed to extend the deadline for an indictment by 71 days, according to court filings. The new deadline was Thursday.

Under the Speedy Trial Act, federal indictments must be filed within 30 days of the arrest.

St. John said Thursday that the extra time was agreed to "so that both sides could continue their investigations."

The federal indictment also alleges that in November 2011 Grant transferred a Norinco semiautomatic rifle to an individual he knew to be a convicted felon.

Patrick M. Walker, 817-983-8080


Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/2012/07/19/…