Jun.25, 2010, 3:12 p.m. PT

The son of Seattle strip club mogul Frank Colacurcio, Sr., plead guilty Friday to charges related to a years-long prostitution and racketeering probe.

Under a plea agreement, he will be sentenced to one year in prison in September. He pleaded guilty to one count of racketeering.

Entering the plea following lengthy negotiations, Frank Colacurcio, Jr., joined four other men associated with his father who've pleaded guilty to federal charges related to allegations of prostitution at the Seattle-area strip club chain. His father, who celebrated his 93rd birthday earlier this month, is now the sole remaining defendant.

Unlike the other men, Colacurcio, Jr., has agreed to serve a one-year prison term as part of the plea deal, which saw several charges against him dropped in exchange for Friday's admission of guilt. He's also been ordered to forfeit $1.3 million and ownership stakes in several properties, including the Talents West office in Seattle's Maple Leaf neighborhood.

Flanked by attorneys John Wolfe and Steven Fogg, Colacurcio, Jr., declined to take questions.

Calling the prison term "more than appropriate," Wolfe said Colacurcio, Jr., has accepted responsibility for his role in the clubs' operations. Wolfe described his client's role as no greater than those held by three of the four other men who pleaded guilty previously and will not see prison time.

Wolfe demurred when asked whether the prosecution was prompted by a decades-long conflict between the Colacurcios and authorities. Agreeing that the dispute could be described as a "pissing match" -- as the reporter put it -- Wolfe declined to discuss it further.

In an indictment filed in June 2009, federal prosecutors accused Frank Colacurcio Sr., his son and four others of racketeering, using interstate commerce to facilitate prostitution, money laundering and mail fraud. Until Friday, Colacurcio and his son were the only remaining defendants.

At issue are allegations that the strip clubs -- Rick's, Sugar's in Shoreline, Honey's in Everett and Fox's in Tacoma -- were used as fronts for prostitution that allegedly garnered the men $25 million in the four years preceding the indictment. Each of the clubs has since been closed as part of a plea agreement struck by the other defendants.

The indictment followed a six-year investigation that culminated in June 2008 with raids by Seattle police and federal agents on the clubs and Talents West, a Colacurcio-owned agency that hires dancers for the clubs. Federal prosecutors have interviewed more than 200 witnesses and reviewed hours of recorded phone calls, surveillance video and intercepts from listening devices placed in several Colacurcio businesses.

In April, three close associates of the Colacurcios pleaded guilty to reduced charges and agreed to forfeit about $4.5 million worth of real estate in exchange for a binding sentencing recommendation that would see each avoid prison time.

Frank Colacurcio Sr.'s nephew Leroy Richard Christiansen, longtime associate David Carl Ebert and Fox's manager Steven Michael Fueston pleaded guilty. Christiansen and Ebert pleaded guilty to racketeering in the furtherance of prostitution and money laundering; Fueston pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of conspiracy to commit prostitution near a military base.

Per the plea agreements with Fueston, Ebert and Christiansen, each will receive five years of probation when sentenced in July and will not serve jail time unless any violate the conditions set forth in the plea agreement. None of the men are required to testify against the Colacurcios, but each is barred from being involved in the adult entertainment industry in the state.

As part of a plea deal, the strip clubs were forced to close. Three will later be auctioned by the federal government.

Another defendant, Colacurcio confidant Gilbert Conte, pleaded guilty reduced charges in November and has since been sentenced to probation.

Celebrating the guilty pleas in April, U.S. Attorney Jenny Durkan called the agreements "a victory for the people of our region and the rule of law."

Durkan acknowledged that Rick's, Fox's and Sugar's could potentially be reopened by another owner after the properties are auctioned by federal authorities. Honey's will be demolished and the property essentially returned to the defendants in exchange for the forfeiture of an amount of money equal to the value of the land.

During pretrial wrangling, an attorney for Fueston claimed the investigation has turned the FBI into "a vice squad." An attorney for Ebert claimed that investigatory reports show one undercover officer involved in the effort spent at least $16,835 buying more than 130 lap dances without making a single arrest.

Describing the operation, Laura Laughlin, special agent-in-charge for the FBI's Seattle office, said that "despite budget crunches" the FBI, Seattle police and other law enforcement agencies were able to put their "best, brightest and most experienced investigators" on the case.

In the FBI's case, court records indicate the lead agent had spent four years investigating international terrorism before spending a decade investigating gang and violent crimes, kidnapping and drug trafficking.

Colacurcio, Sr., attorney Irwin Schwartz has asked that the U.S. District Court Judge Richard Jones dismiss all counts against his client.

Arguing that federal prosecutors have "attempted to stretch federal law beyond the breaking point," Schwartz cited a 47-year-old 9th Circuit Court of Appeals decision he contends bars such a move.

"Neither prostitution nor maintaining a conspiracy to maintain a house of prostitution is a federal offense," the 1963 opinion read, according to Schwartz motion for dismissal.

"It is not the business of federal prosecutors to prosecute for state offenses, or of federal courts to entertain such prosecutions. And we think that federal courts must be on guard against attempts to convert what are essentially offenses against state law into federal crimes via the conspiracy route."

A hearing on Schwartz's motion for dismissal is scheduled for July 2.

Colacurcio, Jr., is scheduled to be sentenced Sept. 24. Should Judge Jones decline to impose the agreed sentence, Colacurcio, Jr., and the prosecution could pull out of the the plea agreement and proceed to trial.