Opening of Church Near Strip Club May Complicate Its Sale

The opening of a church near the now closed Crazy Horse Too strip club could complicate its potential sale.

Steve Caruso, an attorney for Michael Signorelli who is negotiating to purchase the club, said the opening of the Little Church of Las Vegas is a sham and simply a ploy by club opponents trying to keep his client from reopening the club, the Review Journal reported.

By law, adult entertainment businesses are barred from operating within 1,000 feet of homes, churches, parks and other public facilities.

Staunch club opponent Peter “Chris” Christoff opened the church last week in the second floor office of a local strip mall along Western Avenue, just a few hundred feet away from the closed strip club. Christoff is the church’s deacon.

Last month, Christoff posed for news photographers in front of the club after the City Council voted to revoke the club’s liquor permit after its owner Rick Rizzolo and some of its employees pleaded guilty to several tax and other charges including one stemming from an incident in which a man was beaten and left paralyzed for allegedly not paying his tab.

Under a federal plea deal, Rizzolo was ordered to pay $10 million to Kirk Henry, a Kansas City tourist who was paralyzed from the chest down in September 2001 after he was attacked outside the club during an argument over an $80 bill.

Another condition of the plea deal was that Rizzolo sell the club.

After Rizzolo’s plea deal, the city moved to suspend his liquor license despite urgings by Henry’s wife and their attorney, Don Campbell, not to do so, saying it would affect Rizzolo’s ability to pay the judgment.