It’s appearing more and more likely that an Omaha City Councilman will be off the council as early as next month.

A federal judge has denied South Omaha Democrat Vinny Palermo’s latest attempt to get out of jail while awaiting trial on federal fraud and corruption charges.

Stuck behind bars Palermo remains unable to attend council meetings, which will almost surely result in automatic forfeiture of his seat in late July.

During his initial appearance in Lincoln Federal Court a judge ruled that Palermo and his three co-defendants could not be trusted to be out of jail while awaiting trial.

That led the four to ask another federal judge, Judge John Gerrard who will oversee the trial, to okay their release. 

But Gerrard has now ruled against the four. They’ll remain in jail; which is an additional problem for Palermo.

With his seat empty and soon going on three months in jail, Palermo is breaking a city council attendance rule.