Ex-club owner faces financial questions

A judge's decision has cleared the way for attorneys representing a paralyzed tourist to determine whether former strip club operator Rick Rizzolo hid his financial assets through a 2005 divorce.

Attorneys for Kirk Henry, who was beaten and left a quadriplegic in 2001 after an argument over an $80 bar tab at the Crazy Horse Too, now will begin to seek documents and depose people to identify Rizzolo's assets.

Henry says he was injured when associates of Rizzolo followed him out of the club, beat him and broke his neck. Henry and his wife, Amy, filed a lawsuit in 2001.

In 2006, the two sides reached a $10 million agreement that called for Rizzolo to immediately pay Henry $1 million and the balance when his club sold.

The same year, the Crazy Horse Too was seized by the government in a tax evasion case against Rizzolo, who was sentenced to one year and one day in prison.

The U.S. Marshals Service officials has been unsuccessful in its attempts to sell the Industrial Road club.

Unloading the property became even more difficult when the Las Vegas City Council decided to revoke the club's liquor license and use permit to operate as an adult club. That, coupled with the spiraling economy, means the business once believed to be worth upwards of $30 million likely isn't worth enough to pay off all of Rizzolo's debts, attorneys said.

Now, the two sides are arguing over whether the Henrys can pursue Rizzolo's other assets.

After a federal court judge granted Henry's request to force Rizzolo to turn over financial documents, a U.S. magistrate judge ruled against it.

On Tuesday, a federal judge reversed that decision.

Don Campbell, an attorney for the Henrys, said the documents should show Rizzolo hid assets with his wife when the two divorced in 2005.

"We're placing people under oath, and we are going to seek all that information now that the court has said that we have that right," Campbell said.

Mark Hafer, an attorney representing Rizzolo, said the claim that the divorce is fraudulent is "totally untrue." He said the couple divorced a year before any agreement was made with the Henrys.

Contact reporter Lawrence Mower at lmower@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0440.