Hearing scheduled on Emergency Motion to force Rizzolo to answer questions

By Steve Miller  Thursday, February 18, 2010

Full docket text for document 282:

ORDER granting [281] Motion to Expedite. Signed by Magistrate Judge George Foley, Jr on February 9, 2010. (Copies have been distributed pursuant to the NEF – JBW)

Full docket text for document 283:

NOTICE of Hearing on [279] Plaintiffs’ Renewed Motion to Compel Defendant Rick Rizzolo to Answer and Respond to Kirk Henry’s First Set of Interrogatories and Requests for Production and for Appropriate FRCP 37 Sanctions : Motion Hearing set for Thursday, February 25, 2010, at 11:00 AM in LV Courtroom 3A before Magistrate Judge George Foley Jr. Oppositions are due no later than February 15, 2010; Replies are due no later than February 22, 2010.(JBW)

Rich Man, Poor Man

“Rizzolo made $5 million to $6 million a year from the club.”
LV Review-Journal, 9/7/06

“In a deposition that Rizzolo gave in the Henry case in

July 2005, he said the club grossed $800,000 to

$1 million a month, which translates to annual

gross sales of $9.6 million to $12 million.”
LV SUN, 5/21/06

“Rizzolo says his club clears ten million a year.”
LA Times, 5/18/06

“I’ve got a watch and a few items of jewelry I may

have to sell to a pawn shop for living expenses.”
Rick Rizzolo, 2/5/10

Inside Vegas by Steve Miller

AmericanMafia.com

February 8, 2010

LAS VEGAS – For the past sixteen months, attorneys for unpaid beating victim Kirk Henry have been pleading with United States Federal Judges Philip Pro and George Foley to force racketeer Rick Rizzolo to divulge the quantity and location of his hidden fortune.

This is the third time Henry’s attorneys had no choice other than to file another MOTION TO COMPEL with Judges Pro and Foley. This one includes a request for sanctions, but based on past performance, I doubt the court will impose any.

FULL COLUMN:

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Steve Miller Interview: Crime and Corruption in Present day Las Vegas

By Steve Miller  Wednesday, February 3, 2010

John L. Smith, a columnist at the Las Vegas Review Journal, once described Rick Rizzolo, the former owner of Las Vegas strip club the Crazy Horse Too, as an “affable wiseguy, high-rolling gambler, and former soft touch for politicians.”

The one-time strip club owner has been described as a friend of Las Vegas’ current mayor, Oscar Goodman, as well as other authorities in Sin City. Steve Miller, a prolific journalist and well known figure in Las Vegas began investigating Rizzolo in 1999, when the strip club owner managed to obtain approval for the expansion for his business, even when he’d already implemented the changes and opened to the public. Casino Online spoke to the journalist about crime, corruption and celebrity status in Sin City.

Miller first began investigating Rizzolo when the strip club owner opened a new, extended bar “without a building permit; additional parking spaces; traffic plan; or certificate of occupancy from the fire department”. To still be legally allowed to open any sort of public entertainment venue without any of these requirements would usually be impossible and Miller became interested about just how Rizzolo had obtained the permission of officials such as former Las Vegas Councilman Michael McDonald.

For the past eleven years, Miller has documented the exploits of Rizzolo and his council cohorts (McDonald wasn’t re-elected in 2003 and it has since been discovered he was receiving kickbacks of $5,000 a month from Rizzolo) and has collected his findings on AmericanMafia.com. In 2000, Rizzolo attempted to sue Miller for libel, but undaunted, Miller knew that the truth would prevail.

However, as he told us, Rizzolo hasn’t left him alone: Over the past few years, the journalist has “received several written death threats and shared them with the police and FBI”.

Miller soon found that Rizzolo’s influence and danger to Las Vegas citizens extended far beyond his ability to wine and dine councilmen though. In October 2001, Kirk Henry had his neck broken by a bouncer at Rizzolo’s strip club, over an $80 bar tab. Henry, who has been paralysed since the attack, sued Rizzolo for attempted murder.

More…

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As if things couldn’t get any more bizarre…

By Steve Miller  Monday, February 1, 2010

LAS VEGAS -  For the entire length of the Kirk Henry federal case, the United States Federal Court for the District of Nevada has handled defendant Rick Rizzolo with kid gloves. In the meantime, quadriplegic Kirk Henry is still waiting to be paid for the injuries he suffered at the hands of one of Rizzolo’s thugs back in October 2001.

Henry’s neck was broken after he disputed a padded bar tab at Rizzolo’s now-defunct Crazy Horse Too topless bar in Vegas. Henry was not Rizzolo’s first victim.

Instead of going after racketeer Rizzolo for using the court to stall this case, the federal court is going after Rizzolo’s jail house lawyer James “Spud” Kimsey for allegedly practicing law without a license—at Rizzolo’s behest!

Instead of throwing the book at RIzzolo for knowingly hiring a non-lawyer like Kimsey, then signing his name to fifteen bogus court filings Kimsey authored including a subpoena commanding Kirk Henry’s attorney appear for a deposition at one in the morning, the federal court seems obsessed with punishing the easiest target, an ex-con biker who’s kept his nose clean for the past fourteen years.

This is another example of why Kirk Henry has had to wait so long for justice.

Kimsey’s inclusion in this case was intentional—to stall the case for at least an additional six months. It worked. The case has gone nowhere since last summer and Henry still sits in his electric wheelchair waiting for justice that seems more elusive with each passing day. And now the court is taking even more time away from Kirk Henry’s plight, to attend to this latest waste of time—punishing Kimsey for doing Rizzolo’s bidding.

More…

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