FBI: Strip Club Owner Wanted To Pay To Kill Arlington Officials
ARLINGTON (CBSDFW.COM) - An Arlington strip club owner was arrested Monday for attempting to pay to have two city officials killed, according to a federal arrest affidavit.
The FBI confirmed that Ryan Walker Grant had been arrested, but they refused to comment further, instead pointing to the federal arrest record.
In a statement Tuesday night, the City of Arlington acknowledged the two officials who were targeted were mayor Robert Cluck and contract attorney Tom Brandt.
The affidavit reveals that Grant tried to have the two murdered because they were involved in the shutdown of his Flashdancer strip club.
Grant said he stood to lose $800,000 each year if his license was revoked and he could no longer operate. In January, the city ordered the club shuttered until 2013.
Flashdancer was the 12th sexually oriented business to be closed in the City of Arlington.
The city says Cluck and Brandt were briefed on the FBI investigation Tuesday. In a statement, Cluck said the city had acted in the 'best interests of Arlington' in relation to the Flashdancer case.
The affidavit says Grant contacted an unidentified individual on April 3 and asked to speak in person about some "formal business."
Quoting from the affidavit, "Grant stated, 'I really need somebody to take a vacation up here to do a job from down south, man.'"
Grant began speaking in code, eventually referring to having someone murdered as "watching a movie," the affidavit says.
Later that day, Grant hosted the individual at his Kennedale home, where he allegedly handed over photos and phone numbers of two "individuals associated with the City of Arlington" who were involved in the revocation of Flashdancer's license.
Quoting again from the affidavit, "Grant stated, 'They just jacked me for a year of business and they're trying to jack me indefinitely, when we had a deal, and they just reneged on it.'"
Grant asks the person to find someone who lives in Mexico to carry out the murders, routinely using a racial epithet when referring to his hopeful hires.
He wanted Mexicans to carry out the crimes because "they could go back to Mexico after the murders were completed," the affidavit says.
Grant allegedly promised $10,000 per murder victim, payable once his targets were killed.
The affidavit describes Grant as nervous and paranoid throughout, asking the individual to "lift his shirt" to make sure he wasn't wearing a recording device. Grant also changed the order on April 9, asking that only one of two individuals be killed.
Later that day, Grant was arrested by FBI and Drug Enforcement Administration officials.
Grant's parents, Ron and Patricia Grant, however, did not believe the allegations against their son.
"It's probably just another step in their efforts to destroy him totally anyway they can, but he did not, and would not do what they're accusing him of," said Ron Grant.
The pair said the accusations are completely out of character for their son. They helped him with his case to keep his club open, renew his sexually oriented business permit, and said they don't believe he did anything he's accused of in the complaint.
"Just don't think he did it, just not his nature. He's not that type of person," said Patricia Grant.
Before the arrest, Grant was hardly quiet about his club being shut down. In a January 21 piece, Grant told CBS 11 News he felt he had been set up by the police.
He fought the city's 2010 ruling that his club was a nuisance for a year-and-a-half before it was ordered closed. The city defines an institution as a nuisance as a place individuals regularly go for drugs, gambling or prostitution.
Flashdancer was the first adult club the city of Arlington had asked the state to file a nuisance lawsuit against.
1080 KRLD News's Matt Thomas contributed to this report.
Read the full affidavit below. Be fair warned, though, some of the language is racist and offensive.
