Friday, February 21, 2003
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

ORGANIZED CRIME INVESTIGATION: Raid looks for mobster link

Club records dating to '95 are seized

6:45 a.m.: Federal agents and Las Vegas police keep watch over the entrance to the Crazy Horse Too Gentlemen's Club early Thursday following a raid of the business. The raid closed the business about 11 hours. Photo by Gary Thompson. 5 p.m.: Cashier Tina Rodriguez helps prepare the Crazy Horse Too for reopening Thursday after federal and local authorities raided the topless club and seized scores of materials, including cash registers and computers. "Without the cash registers, we're basically operating out of cigar boxes," said Crazy Horse attorney Tony Sgro. Photo by K.M. Cannon.

Dozens of law enforcement officers raided the Crazy Horse Too Gentlemen's Club early Thursday as part of an ongoing investigation into links between the business and organized crime.

Authorities closed the topless club, at 2476 Industrial Road, while they conducted an 11-hour search of its premises and nearby storage units.

"They handled (Thursday's) search with the scope and intensity that would be expected if they had located a terrorist cell within the club," Crazy Horse attorney Tony Sgro said.

FBI spokesman Daron Borst estimated that between 80 and 100 officers, some carrying rifles, arrived at the business around 5 a.m. to begin the search.

"We needed a lot of people to secure all the patrons and employees in the various rooms," the spokesman said. He said the use of long guns was not unusual.

Those involved in the search included agents from the FBI, Drug Enforcement Administration and Internal Revenue Service, as well as Las Vegas police. No arrests were made.

"Patrons were secured and checked for warrants, then released," Borst said.

He said two undercover agents wore ski masks during the raid to protect their identities.

The search warrant and its supporting affidavit have been sealed, but Sgro provided a copy of the warrant to the Review-Journal.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Peggy Leen issued the warrant Wednesday afternoon. It authorized officers to seize a variety of records dating to 1995.

"Basically, the warrant is drafted very broadly," Sgro said. "There's nothing that couldn't be covered under this warrant."

The warrant specifically authorized officers to seize "documents and records which would demonstrate the existence of tribute payments" made to La Cosa Nostra crime families for allowing the business to operate in Las Vegas.

It also authorized the seizure of records that "would establish the identity of those persons who may have a hidden ownership in the club."

In addition, the warrant authorized officers to seize controlled substances, pill- and money-counting devices, measuring devices, packaging materials, scales "and other paraphernalia used in distributing controlled substances."

Sgro called the search "nothing short of a publicity stunt," noting that the news media were present when it began. He also accused law enforcement officers of improperly interfering with his client's business operations.

"They're not entitled to disrupt and/or close down a legally and lawfully operated business," the attorney said.

Sgro said the officers seized cash registers, credit card transaction machines and computers from the club.

"Without the cash registers, we're basically operating out of cigar boxes," he said.

The attorney said club owner Rick Rizzolo was in California when the search began but flew back to Las Vegas later Thursday morning.

Sgro said Rizzolo reacted to news of the search by saying he wanted to sue somebody to recoup the money he would lose while his club was closed.

The search ended around 4 p.m., and the business reopened about 8 p.m. Sgro helped Rizzolo take inventory at the club after the officers left the premises.

"They didn't necessarily launch a bomb out of this place, but they certainly disheveled it," Sgro said.

The attorney said he negotiated with Assistant U.S. Attorney Eric Johnson for the return of the club's credit card transaction machines, and Rizzolo purchased new cash registers to help the business resume operations. Johnson, who has prosecuted several mobsters and their associates, declined to comment on the search of the club.

Sgro said he feared some potential customers would choose to stay away from the business because of the raid. The attorney said officers terrorized people at the club.

"People were coming out saying they were being searched at gunpoint," Sgro said. He said officers from various agencies served a search warrant at the club in late 2001 without interrupting business operations. During the search, Rizzolo and his employees guided officers to information they needed, the attorney said.

"To go from that kind of rapport and relationship to what happened (Thursday) morning causes a lot of disappointment and a lot of frustration," Sgro said.

He said authorities supplied Rizzolo with a list of 170 items seized during the search. The attorney said officers found no drugs other than a small amount of marijuana in a dancer's locker.

Sgro said Rizzolo was not granting interviews Thursday.

The owner and his club have been mired in controversy in recent years.

Documents filed as part of a lawsuit against the Crazy Horse indicate that authorities have been conducting a criminal investigation of the business for at least 15 months. A federal grand jury has been convened to hear evidence produced by the inquiry.

Sgro said allegations of the club's involvement in criminal activity are unsubstantiated.

Last month a District Court jury returned a unanimous verdict in favor of the Crazy Horse in a wrongful death lawsuit that accused bouncers at the club of beating a man to death in August 1995.

Another lawsuit accuses an employee of breaking a Kansas tourist's neck in September 2001 after a dispute over a bar tab. The injury left the customer, Kirk Henry, paralyzed from the chest down.

Henry's attorneys contend that Rizzolo has cultivated an environment of lawlessness at the club by employing numerous felons with lengthy criminal histories that include convictions for battery, robbery, extortion, burglary, fraud and drug dealing.

"For years, the management and 'security' staff of the Crazy Horse has been infested by a rogues' gallery of thugs, thieves, drug pushers, and corrupt ex-cops," attorney Donald Campbell wrote in court documents. "Most, if not all, have well-documented ties to organized crime figures who frequent the premises. All of this has nurtured a culture of violence marked by robberies, beatings and even death."

In Rizzolo's deposition for the Henry case, which is pending in District Court, the plaintiff's attorneys questioned him about his relationships with reputed mobsters Joey Cusumano, Fred Pascente and Chris Petti. The three men are listed in Nevada's Black Book, which prohibits them from entering Nevada casinos and gaming establishments.

They also asked Rizzolo questions about night shift manager Vincent Faraci, a convicted felon and the son of a Bonanno crime family captain.

Rizzolo's campaign contributions have been sought and accepted by Nevada politicians over the years, and his recent records show he likes both Republican President George W. Bush and the Democratic Party.

According to federal and local records, Rizzolo has donated in recent elections to Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman ($5,000), Clark County Commissioner Mary Kincaid-Chauncey ($1,000), the congressional campaign of Democrat Dario Herrera ($2,000), Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev. ($2,000), the Nevada State Democratic Party ($5,000), Ed Bernstein's Democratic U.S. Senate campaign ($2,000), President Bush ($3,000), the Democratic National Committee ($3,000), and the Nevada Democratic Party ($5,000).

Other members of his family also show up as federal donors, including Bart, Ralph and Lisa Rizzolo. They have donated $10,500 to candidates including Herrera, Bernstein, Bush and Berkley.

District Attorney David Roger accepted money from Rizzolo but returned it during last year's campaign.

Las Vegas officials said they will wait for the results of the federal investigation of the Crazy Horse before they decide whether to conduct their own inquiry into the club's fitness for licensure.

"For us to interfere would not be prudent at this point," said Goodman, a defense attorney who has represented Cusumano.

Goodman rejected speculation that he might represent Rizzolo if criminal charges are filed against him or the club.

"I don't think it's a good idea for the mayor of Las Vegas to take any high-profile cases," said Goodman, who plans to practice law on a limited basis if he's elected to a second term this spring.

Councilman Michael McDonald, a former Las Vegas police officer who was investigated but never charged in 2000 over his relationship with Rizzolo, echoed Goodman's statements and said it's too soon to determine whether the club's license could be threatened by the raid.

Jim DiFiore, the city's business license manager, said his department received no advance notice of Thursday's raid. He said the city conducts regular inspections of the club and that its liquor and erotic dance licenses would only be threatened if law enforcement officers discover specific violations of the city's business license code.

"Buffalo" Jim Barrier, a Rizzolo foe who has long owned an auto mechanic shop next to the Crazy Horse, said he was happy about the raid.

"I'd like to expand there," said Barrier, a veteran trainer of professional wrestlers. "We're going to take the horse and put it in a glue factory. And the Buffalo will keep on roaming."

Review-Journal staff writers Jan Moller, Jane Ann Morrison and Frank Curreri contributed to this report.