City Officials have barred members of the Rizzolo family from working for the Crazy Horse Too club’s new owner.
On Wednesday City Council members formally prohibited any “blood relatives” of former owner Rick Rizzolo from working at the club which is now run by Mike Signorelli who reopened the club last month after it closed after the city fined the cabaret $2.2 million and revoked its liquor license.
City Council voted to revoke the permit after Rizzolo and some of his 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.
Council members said they have been receiving e-mails from club opponents complaining that some of Rizzolo’s relatives were back working at the reopened club.
One such e-mail said that Rizzolo’s 22-year-old son Dominic was running the club while Rizzolo's brother Ralph was “the number two guy.”
Signorelli agreed to the council’s new conditions and said he wants to start with a new slate. Signorelli is reportedly leasing the building for $400,000 a month and under a deal with the city, has agreed not to hire anyone who pleaded guilty to federal crimes in the Rizzolo case.
