LAS VEGAS - Authorities accused Dominic Rizzolo in January 2008 of trying to extort $20,000 from a former high school class mate. When the extortion attempt failed, Rizzolo stabbed the man according to a Las Vegas Metropolitan Police report.
Ten months later on October 28, 2008, Dominic, the 26 year old son of convicted racketeer
Rick Rizzolo, pleaded guilty to Battery With Use Of A Deadly Weapon.
The Rizzolos are no strangers to acts of violence. On September 6, 2006, during a license revocation hearing before the Las Vegas City Council,
City Attorney Brad Jerbic informed the council that Rick Rizzolo, 50, (photo by the late
Buffalo Jim Barrier) admitted in a plea bargain that "...the government would have sought to prove at trial 35 to 40 beatings had occurred at Rizzolo's Crazy Horse Too topless bar in three years."
Admitting that federal prosecutors would have probably prevailed at trial, Dominic's father pleaded guilty to lesser charges and accepted a one year reduced sentence in federal prison in exchange for agreeing to the forfeiture of his bar, and paying court ordered debts totaling over $27 million dollars including $9 million to a man whose neck was broken in 2001 by a Crazy Horse manager during a dispute over an $88 bar tab.
The family's history of violence began years earlier according to Las Vegas Review-Journal columnist John L. Smith who
wrote on October 17, 2003: "Rick Rizzolo was part of a 1987 incident in which a Colorado tourist was assaulted with a baseball bat at the club. The incident, the attorneys allege, resulted in the customer suffering permanent brain damage."
In 1990, Rick Rizzolo with the help of a friendly District Attorney plea bargained his Battery charges down to a gross misdemeanor, and served no time in jail. The victim, Rick Sandland, died three years later of complications caused by the attack. A friendly judge sealed the record, but the file became public when the FBI in 2002 began its racketeering investigation of the Crazy Horse Too.
Twenty-one years after the baseball bat attack, Rick's son proved the apple doesn't fall far from the tree by pleading guilty to Battery With Use Of A Deadly Weapon. And like his father, Dominic's light penalty also reflected the extent of the Rizzolo's
political clout in Las Vegas.
According to the
Las Vegas Review-Journal; "Authorities accused Dominic Rizzolo of trying to extort $20,000 from a man whom he suspected of credit card theft. Dominic Rizzolo ended up stabbing the man, according to a Las Vegas police report. He was charged with extortion and battery with a deadly weapon but police said prosecutors should consider attempted murder and conspiracy charges. In October, Dominic Rizzolo pleaded guilty to one count of battery with use of a deadly weapon."
On January 21, 2008, at approximately 10 PM, Dominic, accompanied by an unidentified man and woman, drove to William Moyer's home in a dark colored SUV with the license place covered by a T-shirt -- an obvious premeditated act.
Moyer, 26, reported he received a phone call earlier that evening asking if he was staying home? Fifteen minutes later, Rizzolo knocked at his door.
Moyer's mother answered the door and summoned her son. The two men conversed on the front lawn for several minutes until Rizzolo reportedly asked Moyer, "Do you know who my family is?" then demanded $20,000.
Moyer said he refused the demand and ordered Rizzolo off the property which he said inspired Rizzolo to hit him in the face. A fight ensued in which Rizzolo pulled a switch blade knife and stabbed Moyer in the upper abdomen. The blade came within a half inch of Moyer's aorta. Rizzolo fled the scene.
Moyer's mother called 911. Moyer received three hours of emergency surgery followed by three days in intensive care.
However, according to newly released information from the Florida Department of Corrections, the stabbing was not intended to kill Moyer. This flies in the face of the fact no discussion about Dominic's intent occurred during hearings in court, and especially since the victim was not even put on the stand to tell his side of the story.
The hearings seemed very contrived to court observers, especially when no Rizzolo family members were ever seen in the audience.
The latest Florida Department of Corrections Supervised Population Information only describes Rizzolo's offense as: "Aggravated Assault With Weapon. No Intent to Kill," though Rizzolo clearly pleaded guilty to "Battery With Use Of A Deadly Weapon" in Nevada!
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It's too obvious that someone in Nevada or Florida tampered with the record after-the-fact to minimize Dominic Rizzolo's crime.
