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JOHN L. SMITH MORE COLUMNS

Thursday, September 21, 2000
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

COLUMN: John L. Smith

Some guys spend a lifetime trying to make a respectable name for themselves, only to be vilified, maligned and dragged through the hog pen by a disgruntled neighbor.

So it is with poor Rick Rizzolo.

He gives to charity, goes to church, and donates plenty to political campaigns. He surrounds himself with former police officers and makes a habit of hiring single mothers.

Especially the young, good-looking ones.

So why is everybody always picking on the poor, lowly operator of the Crazy Horse Too topless cabaret?

Perhaps that's what a lawsuit filed Tuesday by Rizzolo's attorney, Dean Patti, seeks to discover. Rizzolo sued auto shop owner Jim Barrier for defamation in the wake of Barrier's own inflammatory lawsuit against Rizzolo outlining alleged criminal activity at the Crazy Horse Too.

Barrier, better known as Buffalo Jim, enjoyed a previously amiable relationship with Rizzolo, his neighbor in an Industrial Road strip mall owned by Schiff Properties. All that began to change last year after Barrier's property started coming under city bureaucratic scrutiny. Barrier suspected Rizzolo, through the topless mogul's City Council friend Michael McDonald, was behind his problems.

The war of words escalated until Barrier filed a noggin-thumping lawsuit against Rizzolo, alleging a pattern of activity that qualified under a civil racketeering statute. It sounded devastating, but the allegations would by their nature need to be backed up with facts.

Rizzolo's lawsuit this week attempts to expose Barrier's litigation as a hurtful mess of mud-slinging that damaged the breast bar owner's reputation and defamed his character. And that's no mean feat.

Rizzolo's name has entered the news often in relation to his friendship with embattled Councilman McDonald, who faces a fresh set of ethics violation allegations involving the potential sale of the Sportspark athletic complex at Summerlin. At the rate McDonald is going, he also will be sued for being bad for Rizzolo's reputation.

Not that Rizzolo's reputation lacks a certain Technicolor quality. The topless business is never boring, but there's a difference between providing rampant hedonism for the purposes of turning a buck and, as Barrier has alleged, making chicks available for the purposes of prostitution. Remember, it's legal to charge money in exchange for simulating sex acts in Southern Nevada, but it is a crime to provide the real McCoy to the panting masses.

Don't ask me why. I just live here.

Any way, Rizzolo runs a licensed business, and his money has been good enough for any number of high-ranking Nevada politicians, but for some reason he remains in the category of less-than solid citizen.

Don't ask me why. I just live here.

So it should be interesting to watch Rizzolo enter court and demand satisfaction from the bearded Buffalo Jim.

But first, of course, the Crazy Horse jockey will be compelled to sit for a deposition. In that deposition, he is sure to be asked numerous questions about his many fascinating friendships and business associations. The names Vinny Faraci, Rocky Lombardo, Joey Cusumano, and Fred Pascente will be uttered, just to name a few. Faraci, the son of a Bonanno crime family capo, is a subject of intense law enforcement scrutiny. Lombardo is kin to Chicago Outfit problem-solver Joey the Clown Lombardo, who you may recall served a little penitentiary time for helping to arrange the Argent Corp. casino skim. Cusumano and Pascente are casino Black Book members.

There are others. In fact, the list of controversial characters is longer than the legs of Rizzolo's dancers.

And then there's McDonald.

The former Metro cop and two-term councilman has not been shy about stating his faithful friendship with Rizzolo at a time when the city has made some strange moves behind the scenes that served to benefit the Crazy Horse Too.

But I'm sure it's all easily explained along with the incredible coincidence of Rizzolo's friendship with a bunch of "Goodfellas" extras.

Now that he's out to save his good name, we might get a chance to see how much of a man of respect Rick Rizzolo really is.

John L. Smith's column appears Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Sunday. E-mail him at Smith@lasvegas.com or call him at 383-0295.