Minnesota [Associated Press]- A strip club owner who said he thought it was legal to recruit outside residents to vote in the town of Coates was acquitted Wednesday of voter fraud conspiracy and forgery by a Dakota County jury.

Prosecutors had argued that Richard “Jake” Jacobson, 36, knew he was breaking the law in 2002 when he persuaded 93 of the strip club’s patrons, dancers and others to register to vote by listing the address for Jake’s Gentleman’s Club as their home address.

Jacobson’s club had closed in June of that year, after a federal judge ruled that the club violated zoning and licensing ordinances. Jacobson was recruiting voters to elect his supporters to the 2002 City Council so he could reopen his business.

In closing arguments, defense attorney Joe Friedberg told the jury that Jacobson’s plan was based on erroneous legal advice from a former attorney, Randall Tigue [pictured].

Prosecutor Scott Hersey said it defied common sense to think Jacobson believed he could legally steal the election. Some co-defendants testified that Jacobson’s bar bouncer, Brad McBride, told them Jacobson would pay fines if they got in trouble.

That showed Jacobson and others “knew what they were doing was illegal,” Hersey said. “He wanted to keep that club going, legal or illegal, it didn’t matter.”

Jacobson has professed innocence.

“I don’t think I did anything wrong in the first place,” he said.

Tigue testified Tuesday that he had advised Jacobson on ways he could get his supporters elected to the council, with hopes of changing an ordinance that rezoned the strip club property as residential.

Tigue said he didn’t advise Jacobson about the law against voter fraud conspiracy.

The 93 people who filled out voter registration cards were charged with forging them. Most have since pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor and paid fines.

Friedberg said Jacobson thought his voting plan was legal when he mailed in 89 of the cards himself. He said he dropped the plan after the auditor’s office sent letters challenging the voters’ eligibility.

Jacobson said he still owns the vacant, pink building in Coates. He has considered reopening it.

Back Story: Prescott, Wisconsin [St. Paul’s Pioneer Press] It was bad legal advice — and not criminal disregard for voting laws — that convinced a strip club owner he could register his dancers and patrons to vote in Coates, Minn., using his club as their home address.

At least, that’s according to an attorney for club owner Richard Joseph Jacobson, whose failed attempt to win the 2002 mayor’s race turned a tiny city in rural Dakota County into a national punch line.

Jacobson, of Prescott, Wis., faces two felony conspiracy charges in connection with the alleged voter fraud, in which 95 patrons, strippers and employees registered to vote using the strip club, Jake’s, as their address. His attorney, Joseph Friedberg, and Assistant County Attorney Scott Hersey made closing arguments Tuesday before a Dakota County jury.

Many of the registrees later said they weren’t sure what they were signing, and some were reportedly too drunk to take the signing seriously. The 95 would-be voters were charged with felony forgery, but most agreed to plead guilty to misdemeanors, and 14 cases have been dismissed.

Jacobson’s case has wound through four and a half years of delays and legal appeals, coming to rest on a central question: Did Jacobson know he was breaking the law when he and his employees organized a pro-strip-club voting bloc?

“If Mr. Jacobson thought this to be illegal … he’d be the first criminal in history to take the evidence and mail it to the state,” Friedberg told the jury.

Friedberg said Jacobson consulted with his “maverick First Amendment lawyer,” Randall Tigue, before mounting his unorthodox mayoral campaign. The two had spotted a newspaper article involving Minneapolis police officers who registered to vote using their work address.

Tigue then obtained a copy of a letter written by Chief Assistant Dakota County Attorney Phil Prokopowicz defending the officers. Tigue testified this week that based on that precedent, he assured Jacobson his campaign was on solid ground.

“His lawyering was not up to par,” said Friedberg, blaming Tigue for giving bad legal advice. “He didn’t do the job he should have done.”

Tigue, formerly of New Brighton, is now the in-house legal counsel for Paper Moon, a chain of “gentlemen’s clubs” based in Richmond, Va.

Hersey said Jacobson and his managers clearly knew what they were doing was wrong but that they assured dancers and patrons that Jake’s would cover any legal fines resulting from their voter fraud. They “were told, if you get in trouble, it’s like a parking ticket,” Hersey said.

Another woman testified that her manager “told her not to talk to police about the voting plan” and that she was assured “the only way she’d be in trouble is if she opened a (warning) letter that came from the government,” Hersey said.

City zoning changes forced Jacobson to shutter the small Clayton Avenue club with the flamboyantly hot-pink exterior in October 2002. He lost the mayor’s race a month later.

Jacobson has fought the zoning changes in federal court, but he has not reopened the club. He said Tuesday he is open to selling it and two neighboring houses.

He now operates Fat Jacks Cabaret in Bock, Minn., where he said he volunteers to go house-to-house each month reading the city’s 54 water and sewer meters. He said he is looking at buying other adult clubs in Minnesota and Wisconsin.