Wednesday, August 06, 2003
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

INTERNAL AFFAIRS PROBE: Sergeant punished over loan

Longtime friend of topless club owner accepted $15,000 to finance venture

The Metropolitan Police Department recently disciplined one of its sergeants after learning he accepted a $15,000 loan from topless club owner Rick Rizzolo, the target of an ongoing federal racketeering probe.

Sgt. Tom Keller's debt to Rizzolo, owner of the Crazy Horse Too on Industrial Road, was discovered in February when dozens of FBI agents raided the strip club.

Among 170 items seized during the 11-hour search was a document found in Rizzolo's desk that indicated Keller had accepted $15,000 from Rizzolo in 1999.

During an ensuing Internal Affairs investigation, Keller admitted accepting money from Rizzolo to finance a computer software business venture he planned to launch with Rizzolo's brother-in-law.

Keller repaid the money to Rizzolo earlier this year after police investigators began questioning him about the document unearthed by the FBI.

"I never did anything illegal or anything to compromise my position at Metro," Keller said Tuesday when reached on his cell phone.

However, Police Department leaders concluded he had compromised his position. They suspended the 23-year decorated police veteran last month for three weeks without pay and removed him from his post heading the cyber-crimes unit.

Keller, 45, is now a patrol supervisor at the Southwest Area Command.

"Some people would tell you there's nothing wrong with accepting $15,000 from Rick Rizzolo, but cops are held to higher standards," said Sheriff Bill Young, who along with Undersheriff Doug Gillespie set Keller's punishment.

"If Tom were in any other business, this would be a nonissue. But I find it improper when a (police) employee takes a loan from someone in a highly regulated, controversial business with no intention of paying it back."

Rizzolo did not respond to requests for an interview made through his attorney, Tony Sgro.

Officials have said the federal probe of Rizzolo and the Crazy Horse Too is not related to the political corruption investigation that in May saw dozens of FBI agents raid strip clubs owned by Jack and Michael Galardi.

No indictments have been returned in either case.

The sheriff said Keller, who is married to one of the Police Department's top civilian employees, could have been demoted or fired after Internal Affairs investigators ruled he violated department policies prohibiting officers from "accepting gifts from suspects" and "consorting with persons of ill repute."

But Young and Gillespie said the discipline they meted out was appropriate considering all of the circumstances, including Keller's more than 30-year relationship with Rizzolo. Keller and Rizzolo met as teenagers.

"I would've looked at this in a different way if this would've been someone he met only in the course of his duties and that he got the money because he's a cop," Young said. "But that's not what happened. This is a relationship that goes back to their childhood days. This did not merit termination or demotion."

Police Department leaders said Keller's treatment had nothing to do with his marriage to Karen Keller, who as the Police Department's finance director reports directly to Gillespie and also works closely with Young.

Karen Keller, a Police Department employee for five years, is paid nearly $117,000 annually to prepare the annual budget request, oversee departmental auditing and conduct other duties typically associated with the title of controller. Tom Keller, a Las Vegas police officer since 1980, earns about $79,000 a year. Neither is related to Young's predecessor, former Sheriff Jerry Keller.

Outside his job as a police officer, Tom Keller for years has operated a local Web site design firm called SciCop's Web.

His clients have included the Las Vegas Police Protective Association, the labor union that represents rank-and-file officers, and the Sheriff's Protective Association, which aids injured Las Vegas police officers and sponsors events for officers and their families.

Several years ago, Keller teamed with Rizzolo's brother-in-law, whose name could not be determined Tuesday, in a venture to expand the business into computer software. But the enterprise was not successful and the police sergeant incurred debt as a result, Gillespie said.

Rizzolo loaned Keller the money to assist with the bills Keller incurred in the failed venture, Gillespie said.

"My wife did not know about the loan," Keller said Tuesday.

Although Rizzolo, 44, has never been convicted of any felonies and was possibly not under federal investigation when the loan was made four years ago, Gillespie said Police Department policies still prohibited Keller from associating with the topless club owner or accepting money from him.

The second policy investigators determined Keller violated, accepting gifts from suspects, restricts Police Department employees not only from criminal suspects but also any "person of ill repute" or "persons whose vocations may profit from information obtained from the department."

Police Department leaders said they decided to transfer Keller out of the cyber-crimes unit so that he could be more closely supervised and because they believe the nature of cyber-crimes investigation, which can involve child pornography and financial fraud, requires an investigator who has earned a high degree of trust.

The sergeant is not the only longtime friend Rizzolo has had within the Police Department.

Former Las Vegas City Councilman Michael McDonald, a Las Vegas police officer when he was elected in 1995, was investigated but never charged in 2000 over his longtime friendship with Rizzolo. McDonald resigned from the Police Department in 1999 and lost his council seat earlier this year.

McDonald is also involved in the FBI investigation of the Galardis and their clubs, but the former councilman has repeatedly said that federal authorities have informed him he is not a target of the political corruption probe.