FORT WORTH -- Flashdancer co-owner Ryan Walker Grant pleaded not guilty Wednesday to a federal murder-for-hire charge for an alleged plot that targeted Arlington Mayor Robert Cluck and a Dallas attorney who represents Arlington.
Grant, who rejected a plea offer made by federal prosecutors before his indictment July 18 on the murder-for-hire charge as well as one for unlawful transfer of a firearm, could go on trial the last week of September.Fort Worth attorney Warren St. John, who represents Grant, declined to elaborate on the plea offer, saying only that "it wasn't something he would have accepted."At an arraignment hearing Wednesday morning before U.S. Magistrate Judge Jeffrey Cureton, Grant, 34, of Kennedale, was scheduled for trial Sept. 24 in the courtroom of U.S. District Judge John McBryde. However, other cases are also on the docket for that time, so the trial may be rescheduled.Grant, co-owner of the strip club at Texas 360 and Randol Mill Road in north Arlington, entered the courtroom dressed in a bright orange jumpsuit and cracked a joke with St. John while standing near the bench with three defendants in other cases.Under questioning from Cureton, Grant revealed that he has been under the care of a mental health professional but said it didn't affect his ability to enter a plea.After the hearing, St. John said that Grant was dealing with "slight depression," likely brought on from being jailed since his arrest April 9.Grant, who remains in the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service, is not under a suicide watch, St. John said."He's in good spirits," St. John said. "When you have your freedom taken away and you're not used to it, it's disheartening."If convicted, he faces up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine on each charge.In May, an FBI agent testified that Grant had expressed interest through an intermediary in hiring men from Mexico to kill Cluck and attorney Tom Brandt, who represents Arlington in cases involving adult businesses.Flashdancer closed for a year in January under the settlement in a nuisance lawsuit brought by the city and the Texas attorney general's office. Authorities cited the prevalence of drugs, prostitution and assaults at the club as the reason for labeling it a nuisance.Meanwhile, Arlington Police Chief Theron Bowman revoked the club's sexually oriented business license, making it harder for Flashdancer to reopen once the year is over.Grant told the intermediary, whom he did not know to be an informant for the Drug Enforcement Administration, that he wanted Cluck and Brandt killed for their roles in blocking his plans to reopen the club, federal authorities say.Patrick M. Walker, 817-983-8080Twitter: @patrickmwalker1