Friday, January 21, 2005
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

JOHN L. SMITH: Indictment pulls at thread that might unravel more than fancy suit

Bobby D'Apice hasn't quite mastered hanging in the shadows during his intriguing career in the adult entertainment business.

Wednesday afternoon was no different.

FBI agents put D'Apice on the ground and then bent him over the hood of his champagne-colored Cadillac outside the Crazy Horse Too topless club on Industrial Road. The agents arrested D'Apice on racketeering, perjury and tax evasion charges and wrinkled his natty brown suit in the process. The sharp dresser was quietly taken away, and later that day his pregnant wife, Nicole Rubino, and former club waitress Paula McBride were summoned on tax and perjury charges respectively.

As porn pioneer Marilyn Chambers' road manager and boyfriend, D'Apice mostly remained off camera. Of course, there were those couple times he partnered up on film with Chambers, once in a story titled "Insatiable II," but perhaps that was part of his managerial duties.

As a shift manager at the Crazy Horse Too, where he's taken a pinch of hundreds of topless dancers' nightly tips, surely D'Apice must have tried to stay on the sidelines and be content to resemble a cast member from "The Sopranos" Bada Bing club. But, of course, there were those times authorities allege he brutalized slow-paying customers.

D'Apice, 50, was raised in Brooklyn, where sources say his father, Andrew D'Apice, was associated with porn distributor Robert "Dibi" DiBernardo of Gambino and DeCavalcante crime family infamy. He's also had family ties to Colombo crime boss Alphonse "Allie Boy" Persico.

And come to think of it, he also got busted on concealed weapons charges, including an incident in which he was arrested in possession of what law enforcement commonly calls "cop killer" bullets. There have been dust-ups with police and that nasty civil suit that finds him accused of breaking the neck of Kansas tourist Kirk Henry.

Wednesday's indictment takes D'Apice to the edge of a place no sane man wants to go: up to 45 years in prison.

Defense attorneys associated with Crazy Horse Too owner Rick Rizzolo argue that the government is attempting to defend its expensive decision to pursue the club's management, which has been portrayed in court documents as having access to what amounts to an untaxed, topless ATM.

Trouble is, the charges are real, and defending someone against misleading grand jury testimony and shaky financial statements can be daunting. Why D'Apice appeared before the grand jury baffles me.

That's where history may judge the FBI, Metro and IRS Criminal investigators kindly: They haven't overcharged the case. Case agents Bobby Bennett, Robert Clymer and Kevin Sheehan along with a team of tenacious IRS financial specialists led by veteran Robert Salisbury have played the cards as dealt.

From the look of things, the pugnacious Bennett has rubbed some of the Crazy Horse crowd the wrong way. On Wednesday, a former prosecutor said of Salisbury, "He's the last human being on the face of the earth I'd want chasing me."

Their hand against the Crazy Horse gang will be hard to beat.

Lately, rumors have floated that the D'Apice arrest represents a shortened federal investigation, but that's wishful thinking. D'Apice is charged with racketeering, and RICO doesn't dance alone. In fact, RICO cases are granted only after Department of Justice scrutiny and approval.

What his indictment does show is an emphasis on attainable goals. Lying to grand juries, roughing up customers and holding them against their will, and tax evasion are meat-and-potatoes prosecutions.

It might not be the stuff of "The Godfather, Part IV," but it's obviously the start of big problems not only for D'Apice, Rubino, and McBride, but Rizzolo and others.

As they led away D'Apice after mussing up his suit, he looked like one genuine stand-up guy. But I'm reminded of something former mob enforcer Anthony Fiato likes to say, "Everybody's a stand-up guy until the cell door slams."

Bada bing, bada boom.

If all those charges are made to stick, those threads will be way out of style by the time Bobby D'Apice gets a chance to wear them again.

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