Wednesday, October 15, 2003
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

Judge denies Crazy Horse Too claim

Failure to show search violated strip club owner's rights cited

Attorneys representing the Crazy Horse Too Gentlemen's Club have failed to show that the government violated their client's constitutional rights, a federal judge has ruled.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Peggy Leen reached the conclusion after the club's attorneys asked her to hold two FBI agents in contempt of court.

The agents and other law enforcement officers searched the Crazy Horse Too on Feb. 20 as part of an ongoing investigation into possible links between the business and organized crime.

At a March 6 hearing, Leen ordered the FBI to return all legal documents seized during the search. She also ordered the FBI to turn over its copies of those documents to the court.

Attorney Tony Sgro, who represents the Crazy Horse Too, argued at the hearing that the documents are protected by attorney-client privilege and should not have been seized or copied.

In a later motion, the attorney contended that the two FBI agents in charge of the investigation, Robert Clymer and Robert Bennett, had "improperly read, reviewed, reorganized and copied the seized attorney-client materials."

Sgro also alleged in the motion that Clymer and Bennett had willfully disobeyed Leen's order to return all original attorney-client materials to the Crazy Horse Too.

During the March hearing, Assistant U.S. Attorney Eric Johnson stated that agents had taken legal documents from the topless club because they were intermingled with financial records, which the warrant authorized them to seize.

In her recent order, Leen concluded that general manager Albert Rapuano's desk and desk drawers "were not the paradigm of organization."

"However, it is equally apparent that there were numerous files and records seized that were clearly identifiable as legal files," the judge wrote.

She further concluded that the Crazy Horse Too "has not established that the government acted in callous disregard of its constitutional rights."

Leen declined to determine whether law enforcement officers lawfully seized the documents in question.

"If and when a criminal prosecution is initiated as a result of this investigation, the affidavit supporting the search warrants will be unsealed," the judge wrote.

That will allow the Crazy Horse Too to challenge the validity of the warrants and the manner of their execution, according to Leen's order.

Leen concluded that the government has unintentionally failed to comply with her previous order requiring it to return all correspondence between the club and its counsel.

She blamed the failure on "a lack of preparation and insufficient review of the contents of the documents seized."

Leen admonished Johnson for delegating to Clymer, a nonlawyer, the task of reviewing seized materials to comply with her order.

"Had counsel for the government been sufficiently personally involved, the issues that are now before the court could have, and should have, been addressed at the March 6 hearing," the judge wrote.

Johnson declined to comment on Leen's order, in which she also admonished Crazy Horse Too attorneys "for their failure to engage in a good faith effort to identify which of the seized documents" they contend are privileged.

Sgro said he was pleased with the order, specifically the finding by Leen that the government did not form a "taint team" during the search to screen for materials that potentially were covered by attorney-client privilege.

"The search was not handled appropriately," Sgro said.