KNAPPSTER George Knapp is a longtime reporter and anchor for KLAS Channel 8.

Thursday, January 16, 2003
Copyright © Las Vegas Mercury

Knappster: Jury, media don't jibe on Rizzolo

By George Knapp

Nightclub impresario Rick Rizzolo is pretty sure the court victory he scored this week will receive far less media attention than the lurid allegations that have dogged him for the past 7 1/2 years. The owner of the Crazy Horse Too adult club has been saying all along that he and his employees had nothing to do with the 1995 death of truck driver Scott Fau, whose body was found near the railroad tracks behind the popular topless joint. Trouble was, no one seemed to believe Rizzolo. No one, that is, except the jury.

Rizzolo and his club have been barbecued on a regular basis by nearly every media outlet in town. His critics--including a few writers for whom the Crazy Horse has become a personal jihad--have pummeled the club, its owner, the owners' friends, associates and employees. Every time some patron gets hammered on booze and passes out in the parking lot, photos are snapped, photos that frequently end up in newspapers or on websites. Every time a cheating husband or drunken exec charges too many lap dances on the company credit card, he has little trouble finding a reporter willing to listen to his allegations of being roughed up by bouncers or bartenders. Recent news accounts have whispered dark rumors and dire predictions involving G-men, grand juries and mob connections. Rizzolo has been portrayed by local newsmen--and this is a quote--as the "Tony Soprano of Las Vegas."

The Fau case is just one of the legal hurdles facing Rizzolo and the Crazy Horse. Several former customers have lined up to take a shot at Rizzolo's bankroll, even though criminal charges, for lack of evidence, haven't been filed in any of the high-profile cases. The Fau family was first in line, first to take a crack at a potential score. The target not only had deep pockets, but was deeply involved in a business that might seem unsavory, even disgusting, to some. The wrongful death lawsuit was filed in 1997, two years after Scott Fau died. It took until a week ago for the matter to get to trial. Fau's widow delivered emotional testimony about how difficult it has been to raise her kids without their father and she offered the opinion that "someone needs to pay" for their suffering. Crazy Horse employees admitted getting into a pitched battle with the 6-foot-4, 350-pound trucker. Words were exchanged with Scott Fau, they recalled. Fists were thrown. The cops were called.

The part of the story that was repeatedly omitted from most news accounts was that officers on the scene found Fau to be the one who was out of control. They had to cuff him, threatened to arrest him, then forcibly walked him off the property and let him go with a warning that he should not return. Fau was alive when he walked away from the club, but was found dead hours later, his body battered and bruised. Medical experts were unable to determine the cause of death.

After all the hoopla leading up to the trial, after years of hang-'em-high drumbeating on the part of some media members, after a full week of gut-wrenching testimony and orchestrated emotions, it took the jury about an hour to reach a conclusion. They sat down, elected a foreman, reviewed all the evidence and testimony, but needed only 50 minutes or so to decide that Rizzolo, his club and his employees could not be held accountable for Fau's death. This wasn't exactly a scene from 12 Angry Men. The verdict was not only quick. It was unanimous.

A few hours after the decision, Rizzolo telephoned Knappster to relay the news. Readers of this space may recall that just two weeks ago, we predicted some of those who've been expecting Rizzolo's fall from grace might be disappointed when he was finally allowed to tell his side of the story...make that stories. During the phone call, he was remarkably nonchalant about the verdict, explaining that he wasn't too excited because he knew all along the allegations wouldn't stick.

Defense lawyer Dan Carvalho was less reserved in his comments. "It's unfortunate that the only part of this story that will make headlines are the original meritless allegations against my client," Carvalho barked. "The verdict which has cleared the Crazy Horse won't get nearly as much ink as the other sexier tales. The fact the jury took less than an hour shows how weak this case was from the beginning."

Of course, there are other legal matters still facing Rizzolo and his club. A Kansas City man who says he was beaten and paralyzed because of an unpaid $80 tab is also suing the Horse. His civil case (again, no criminal charges were filed) has received even more media attention than the Fau matter. Strangely enough, there are two sides to this one as well, although you wouldn't know it based on most newspaper and TV accounts.

And then there is the matter of a reported FBI investigation into the possibility that the Crazy Horse represents a "continuing criminal enterprise," a probe that is reportedly based, at least in part, on a long list of assorted, sordid allegations that have been raised over the past few years, including the "routine" roughing up of club patrons. Any time the FBI gets interested in looking at your business, it's a serious matter, something even cool-headed Rick Rizzolo would admit. The probe has been under way for 14 months now, and there have been plenty of news stories about it, but charges have yet to be filed.

Still, Rizzolo and his legal team are confident they will prevail in their future court battles. Clearly, the topless nightclub business isn't as pristine or gentile as, say, selling aprons, flower bouquets or Girl Scout cookies. As long as randy, horn-dog patrons like to visit such clubs, get screaming drunk and ogle naked women, there is always going to be a risk of trouble. Put it this way, no one will ever walk into the Crazy Horse and mistake it for Sunday school. But this week's verdict seems to suggest that if someone is going to haul the Horse into court, they'd better have more than sob stories and news clippings.

Names, faces and places

The Great Basketball War in Summerlin shows no signs of waning. A group of homeowners has launched a guerilla media campaign against the association, which manages acceptable behavior in what is widely regarded as the best master-planned community in the country. Residents have alleged that the overzealous homeowners' association has gone too far in its attempts to regulate front-yard basketball hoops. The fight even got a recent mention in the Wall Street Journal. The Journal quotes residents as saying that the association's rules "make it less than family-friendly," a comment that has to sting since it was printed in such a respected paper. Perhaps more surprising to the association is an article that appeared in The Magazine of Summerlin, distributed to every home in the vast development. The article included a blistering verbal attack on the policies of the association regarding the basketball tussle. ... Former Las Vegas City Councilman Steve Miller, who has written extensively about the above-mentioned Crazy Horse situation, is no longer penning articles or commentaries for the weekly Las Vegas Tribune. In one of his frequent online missives, Miller told his readers that his departure from the Tribune is directly related to his criticism of the Horse. Miller adds that his articles cause him to be "fired from his lucrative job at the heretofore brave Trib." Lucrative? Really? ... Legal eagle Chuck Gardner, who writes for the Mercury on occasion, has filed court motions he hopes will finally put an end to city of Las Vegas attempts to seize private property on behalf of the Stratosphere Hotel. This is another legal battle that's been ongoing for years. Gardner alleges that the eminent domain seizure, taken under the guise of community redevelopment, really amounts to "the community redeveloping the Stratosphere." His hard-hitting motions refer to the land grab as "the most incompetent abuse of public power in the history of this state."