Debtors aggressively pursue laundered assets. Ex-wife and stepmother are the next targets. Cafe near prison may become the new social club for the Las Vegas mob
LAS VEGAS - At 2 PM Wednesday, September 15, 2011, Vegas racketeer Rick Rizzolo surrendered to authorities at the Taft Correctional Institution (TCI) in the hot and dusty San Joaquin Valley of Central California 309 miles from Las Vegas for his second prison stay -- this time for parole violations. But he didn't surrender peacefully. True to form, Rizzolo mounted a very expensive last minute legal fight that cost him, or one of his associates, tens of thousands of wasted dollars in attorney fees!
On July 28, Rizzolo's attorneys filed a Ninth Circuit Court Appeal of his July 20 sentencing. Then on September 2, Rizzolo filed a 14 page Emergency Motion to stay his surrender to prison pending the results of his Appeal. On September 7, the United States Attorney filed a Response to Rizzolo's Emergency Motion to stay his surrender. On the morning of September 12, U.S. Judge Philip Pro Denied Rizzolo's Emergency Motion to Stay his surrender. That afternoon, Rizzolo filed a 5 page Emergency Motion for Reconsideration of Order Denying Defendant's Emergency Motion to Stay Surrender. On September 13, Judge Pro promptly Denied Rizzolo's second Emergency Motion to stay out of prison thereby sending him to TCI on schedule two days later.
All together, an attorney told INSIDE VEGAS that Rizzolo's stay-out-of jail legal shenanigans cost at least $20,000 in attorney's fees, money that should rightly go to pay his court ordered debts now totaling over $17 million dollars. And where did Rizzolo get the money to pay his top notch attorneys at Gordon Silver Law Firm at a time when he claims to be broke? Something I'm sure the feds are about to look into.
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CORRECTION
Above, I erroneously stated that the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals filed a Denial of Rick Rizzolo's Motion for Bail Pending Appeal (ORDER ATTACHED).
The Ninth Circuit Court has not yet Denied Rizzolo's motion to stay out of prison on bail pending his Appeal of U.S. Judge Philip Pro's sentence of an additional 9 months in prison and an additional 2 years of parole for violating conditions of supervised release.
The Ninth Circuit Court today filed an ORDER instructing Judge Pro to state orally or in writing within 10 days the reasons for his Order denying Rizzolo’s Motion for Bail Pending Appeal.
Following the Ninth Circuit's receipt of Judge Pro's reasons, Rizzolo's attorneys will have 10 days to file a supplemental memorandum in support of their Motion for Bail Pending Appeal.
If Rizzolo files a Supplemental Memorandum, the United States Attorney may file his Response within 10 days after service of Rizzolo's Supplemental Memorandum.
If Rizzolo files a Supplemental Memorandum, and the United States Attorney files a Response, the Ninth Circuit may decide to hear Rizzolo's case sometime in the future. In the meantime, Rizzolo remains incarcerated until June 12, 2012, then will serve an additional 2 years of supervised release unless the Ninth Circuit reverses Judge Pro's Order.
Steve Miller, is a former Las Vegas City Councilman. In 1991, the readers of the Las Vegas Review Journal voted him the “Most Effective Public Official” in Southern Nevada. Miller writes internationally syndicated columns on organized crime and political corruption for Rick Porrello’s AmericanMafia.com.
