Excerpt from INSIDE VEGAS by Steve Miller, February 25, 2007:

"Not since Tony Spilotro has there been as notorious a hoodlum
as Rick Rizzolo. For the bank to say they didn't know is farcical."
- Stan Hunterton, attorney for Kirk Henry, 2/22/08

In a shocking turn of events, US Attorneys for Nevada, Gregory Brower and Daniel Hollingsworth, have taken the side of a California bank asking US Federal Judge Philip Pro to remove beating victim Kirk Henry from being first in line to receive his $9 million dollar court ordered settlement to be taken from the sale of the forfeited Crazy Horse Too topless bar

...

In addition to trying to take Kirk Henry's settlement and give it to a bank, Brower and Hollingsworth asked Judge Pro to conduct a hearing behind closed doors with the bank's attorneys allowed to argue via telephone; deny Henry's request for discovery including an investigation into where Rizzolo hid his personal assets; and deny Henry's request for a trial in open court.

The government said they were doing this to save taxpayer money because they believed Henry would not prevail at trial, and by cutting short his attorney's requests, taxpayers would save the cost of fighting the bank in open court, then losing.

This wasn't the first time Nevada US Attorneys have raised eyebrows in this case. They have a history of trying to keep the public in the dark regarding the Crazy Horse Too. On August 13, 2007, they told Judge Pro, "The general public should not be allowed to know the proposed offers, the proprietary information, etc." regarding the sale of the topless bar.

Politicians, state officials, judges, and attorneys working for mob figures. Sounds just like the days when "Mr. Cleanface" Harry Reid was Gaming Commissioner and the mob claimed he was in their pocket. Maybe the city motto should be "What happens in Vegas has always happened in Vegas."
For the full article go to AmericanMafia.com.

Judicial Hellholes are places where judges systematically apply laws and court procedures in an inequitable manner, generally against defendants in civil lawsuits. In this sixth annual report, ATRF shines the spotlight on six areas of the country that have developed a reputation for uneven justice.
1 South Florida
2 Rio Grande Valley
and Gulf Coast, Texas
3 Cook County, Illinois
4 West Virginia
5 Clark County, Nevada
6 Atlantic County, NJ

From pg. 22 of the report:
The Los Angeles Times conducted an in-depth report on the Clark County judiciary entitled, "They're Playing With a Stacked Judicial Deck." As the paper reported: "A common perception among a dozen out-of-state lawyers interviewed about their experiences in Nevada
courtrooms is that justice in Las Vegas is just another form of legalized gambling."
Lawsuit shenanigans have increasingly tarnished the reputation of Clark County's
civil justice system. Clark County "courts are clogged with frivolous litigation and
the rolls of the state bar are spotted with unethical and incompetent attorneys."
"Indeed, frivolous class action lawsuits know no boundaries in a city that sings to
lawyers in siren song fashion."
...

As I have written before, it is so nice to know that the Times reports more on our corrupt legal system than Nevada's own media. Our newspapers seem to enjoy relaying and replaying our scandals but seem reluctant to upset the party by actually uncovering corruption, unless the players aren't part of Nevada's favorite sons and daughters club, such as former Chicagoan Lacey Thomas.of UMC "fame."

Las Vegas has been named the "debauchery capital" of the world, according to the Euromonitor report.

According to the report, the youth is flocking to the gambling mecca for wild parties and strip tours.

The report has also revealed that hotels of the city are catering for the trend with raunchy parties costing up to 2,500 pounds a day.

According to the report, other wild spots include The Caribbean, Cape Town, Dubai, Buenos Aires and Macau in China.

And to further spotlight the debauchery image of Las Vegas, Steve Miller reports our sterling city councilpersons are valiantly paving the way for more through secret manueverings benefitting convicted felon Rick Rizzolo and the now closed Crazy Horse Two:

"Councilwoman Lois Tarkanian is the wife of legendary UNLV basketball coach Jerry Tarkanian. The churchgoing grandmother does not fit the description of a mob moll, but her action at last Wednesday's Las Vegas City Council meeting made some observers think otherwise when she quietly sponsored a bill to extend the time from six months to one year that the Crazy Horse Too could remain closed and still retain its "Adult Use" zoning.
...
It's now more obvious than ever that Rizzolo and his cronies have at least two, possibly three, lackeys on the City Council ready to grant anyone -- no matter their criminal background -- a new liquor license to reopen the mobbed-up strip club.
...
Abstaining on Wednesday's vote to approve Tarkanian's ordinance was Rizzolo's loyal friend; former defense attorney; and former corporate resident agent Mayor Oscar Goodman. The rest of the council, including Councilman Steve Wolfson, lined up like sheep to help Rizzolo sell his club for top dollar.

Wolfson's wife, District Court Judge Jackie Glass, recently denied attorneys for beating victim Kirk Henry the ability to examine Rick Rizzolo's personal assets. The judge's husband the councilman soon thereafter voted to grant a liquor license to a straw man who was not qualified to operate the Crazy Horse too in Rizzolo's absence."

... and the beat goes on....

Steve Miller writes, "the following two documents were never meant for public view, but I believe the public needs to be familiar with their contents in order to protect the public's safety in regard to who will be allowed to reopen the Crazy Horse Too.

The first document dated August 13, 2007 indicates that U.S. Attorneys want Rick Rizzolo -- from his prison cell -- to SECRETLY be allowed to approve the buyer."

The Las Vegas promotional slogan should simply read, "Las Vegas, your corruption is showing."

For the rest of his article: My reasons for concern

U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts compared attorneys to firefighters last week, telling a University of Montana law school gathering that both have to jump into tough situations to contain problems.
....
Roberts noted that both firefighters and lawyers are viewed as "a little bit nuts" and have a strong sense of camaraderie.

"If you are in the law simply to make a living, you are not likely to find it rewarding," he told the audience.

Can we impeach Roberts for being really nuts? I don't think that very many firefighters are pouring gasoline on fires so that they increase their billable hours. I also doubt that they are told at firefighter school that they have to be prepared to be firefighters one day and arsonists the next and perform both roles equally, but attorneys are expected to argue both sides of an issue equally depending on which client comes through the door. Plus, firefighters know who their enemy is, the fire. An attorney has to deal with other attorneys who file delaying motions, judges who are incompetent at the law, who don't know the case, who are political or bribable (In Las Vegas, They're Playing With a Stacked Judicial Deck--L.A. Times), even (Gasp!) clients who are criminals--not just in criminal cases but in civil matters, also. The legal system is corrupt; those with money "buy" the best justice, but Roberts claims that those who only want to make a living don't find it rewarding ( I have never met an attorney who said, "Forget the retainer, ignore the bill, I don't need or want the money. I'm just glad justice was served.") ...I wonder if it is more likely those who like money stay in the profession and that those who leave the profession are like many who leave teaching--they have the passion for the profession but not the stomach for navigating a failing system where the marginal and incompetent seem to be a protected species.

For fun--or despair--check out Steve Miller's articles which include the efforts of former mob attorney, Oscar Goodman, the law firm of Patti & Sgro working for Rick Rizzolo, former strip club owner, the Reid family headed by Senator Harry and their land deals, former District Court Judge Nancy Saitta, now a Nevada Supreme Court Justice, who tried to file a document in favor of Rick Rizzolo when the case was being heard by Judge Elizabeth Gonzalez in September 2004 (A judge in their pocket), and then try to believe that attorneys have anything in common with firefighters. I doubt most people, except attorneys, can stomach the comparison.

The recent articles on the Nevada sex scene have given bloggers plenty to post the last few days, so why not go with the flow; hopefully, the attention will keep Oscar saying stupid things, his stock in trade, giving bloggers continued blogisms...or is that blogasms.

New York Times, September 8, 2007
Escape From Las Vegas
By Bob Herbert

Amber is 19 years old and on Sunday she caught a flight out of Las Vegas's McCarran International Airport and went home to a small town in Minnesota, not far from the Iowa border.

I'm rooting for her. She's low on funds ("I've got my ticket, that's about all," she said), and she's at a crucial turning point in her life.

The question is whether she will go off to college in Florida, and stick with it, which she insists is what she wants to do, or whether she will slip back into her life as a stripper and lap dancer, which is so often the start of the descent into the hell of prostitution.

"I hate the dancing," she told me. "Sometimes I think I don't have a strong enough mind for it, because of the way people treat me."

I met Amber in Las Vegas last week. I was with Melissa Farley, a psychologist and researcher who was asked by the head of the U.S. State Department's anti-trafficking office to do a study of the sex trade and its consequences in Nevada.

(She published the book-length study this week under the title, "Prostitution and Trafficking in Nevada: Making the Connections.")

Steve Miller, ever tenacious in discovering the relationships of the few, the rich, and the shady in Las Vegas is reporting in a new article that in 2005, immediately following Rick and Lisa Rizzolo's divorce and three weeks after Rizzolo began negotiating his plea agreement with Federal prosecutors, the couple visited the law firm of Lionel Sawyer and Collins in Las Vegas, a law firm closely associated with United States Senator Harry Reid, whose son Rory works there. Steve writes that they met with attorney John E. Dawson, the brother of U.S. Federal Court Judge Kent Dawson, to protect assets in various ways including transfers of property and creation of a trust.
....
After setting up the separate trust, the Rizzolo's hired John E. Dawson as the Resident Agent for the Crazy Horse Too's parent corporation, "THE POWER COMPANY, INC."
....
Steve writes that it appears "Judge Dawson went real easy on 16 former Crazy Horse goons after they pleaded guilty to crimes including racketeering, tax evasion, robbery, and extortion; this after U.S. Federal Prosecutors asked for harsh sentences; and after a member of the New York Crime Commission testified about several of the defendant's mob ties."

"Would Judge Dawson have been so lenient with the Crazy Horse goons if his brother had not gained lucrative clients like Rick and Lisa Rizzolo? Or had he not been appointed a Federal Judge by the business partner of one of the Crazy Horse Too's attorneys?"

As Steve points out, Judge Dawson sentenced Crazy Horse shift manager Vinny Faraci, a reputed Bonanno crime family soldier who had a prior felony conviction, to only five months in an Arizona Federal Prison Camp.

Steve notes that not once during the trials did Judge Dawson disclose that his brother John was the Crazy Horse Too's corporate Resident Agent, or that his brother arranged to hide the Rizzolo's assets from forfeiture, or that he was appointed to the Federal Bench by Senator Reid who is the business partner of Jay Brown who is the law partner of Oscar Goodman who was once Rizzolo's criminal defense attorney and former corporate Resident Agent!

Cause if he did, that would be ethical behavior and I think that such behavior has been outlawed in Nevada. This is the place--possibly Hell--where graft and corruption have to be listed on your resume to get ahead, and where Las Vegas Mayor Goodman recently offered to beat Columnist Bob Herbert of the New York Times over the head with a baseball bat because--gasp--that reporter dared to report in "City as Predator" that Las Vegas and Nevada exploit women through prostitution and human trafficking. Can we beat over the head--with a rolled up Sunday paper--the next person to suggest that Oscar should run for governor or U.S. Congress. Please, haven't we had enough embarassment from our elected officials in this state

Steve Miller is reporting in his column at AmericanMafia.com that ex-Las Vegas City Councilman Michael J. McDonald is currently the subject of an IRS tax fraud investigation. A federal grand jury will convene in several weeks to hear the government's case against McDonald. An Indictment is expected soon thereafter.

Steve notes that while McDonald sat on the city council between 1995 and 2003, he was best known for being the pawn of two topless bar owners, and doing the bidding of a shady golf course developer and the local trash collection company. In eight years, he went from a $42,000 per year cop to a multimillionaire real estate developer/business consultant though he never built anything other than his own $1.75 million dollar residence, and his only known consulting job was for a little known topless joint called Pleasures that reportedly paid him $30,000 per month for his "consulting services."

For Steve's full story.

"A Chip Off the Old Block," by Steve Miller reviews many of the "antics" of the offspring of yesterday's lawless bunch, including Benny Behnen (Benny Binion's grandson) and Dominic Rizzolo (Rick Rizzolo's son), the attorneys who keep them out of trouble, and more. Oscar (Goodman) claims the mob doesn't exist, but these "little" mafia guys must believe they are "big stuff."

According to a Review Journal article, Stephen Stein, attorney for Signorelli, told the Las Vegas City Council on Wednesday that Crazy Horse Too owner Rick Rizzolo has passed on Signorelli's offer for a higher bid for the topless club.

The unknown buyer is offering $34.5 million and has $5 million in escrow, Stein said.

Perhaps the unknown buyer is Mayor Oscar Goodman. After all, he has worked very hard to keep the doors open, would have no trouble getting a liquor license from the city council despite conflicts of interests, and could soon retire as the happiest ex-mayor in the world, drinking gin, hanging with the babes, and regaling cronies with stories about the mob that wasn't there.

George Knapp is reporting that the grandson of Benny Binion, Benny Behnen, has assaulted another woman at one of Las Vegas' most popular gourmet restaurants, Piero's, on Convention Center Drive.

He reports sources say Behnen and his group were involved in some sort of argument with another group when he spotted Sandy Murphy--forever linked to the Binion family as the girlfriend of Ted Binion who was tried twice for murder in Ted's death--across the restaurant and came over to her, smashed her head on a table and gave her a shot to the jaw. Metro police were called to the scene.

This just happens to be a recurring behavior by Behnen at the same restuarant. Steve Miller reported on another such event for the Las Vegas Tribune in 2000.

August 25, 2000 Stratosphere Tower developer Bob Stupak was dining with his 23-year-old daughter Summer at Piero's restaurant on Convention Center Drive in Las Vegas when three men attacked the duo at their table after claiming that Stupak had "stolen Horseshoe Casino chips."

Summer Stupak, who attempted to stop the beating of her 58-year-old father, narrowly missed being hit by a chair swung at her by one of the assailants. She is quoted in the police report stating: "The owner of Piero's did nothing to intervene or stop this assault."

One of the assailants was then 23 year old Benny Behnen, the grandson of Horseshoe founder Benny Binion.

Eyewitnesses collaborated the police report though Piero's owner Freddie Glusman later denied the incident occurred. Similar incidents had been reported at the restuarant in the past.

The I-Team reports it called Piero's manager, Evan Glusman on this latest event, but apparently he declined to comment.

I guess like Freddie said about the 2000 assault, this one never happened, either. One thing is for sure, I ain't a gonna eata ata thata place.

Steve Miller is happily reporting that garage owner Buffalo Jim Barrier has finally won three motions in Clark County District Court last week against his landlord, convicted racketeer Rick Rizzolo, who currently sits in a Los Angeles County jail.

His Inside Vegas column reports in the following excerpt that:
District Court Judge Elizabeth Gonzalez agreed with Barrier's attorney Kim D. Price that Federal stays had been in effect that stalled Barrier's harassment case for almost three years. She ruled that NRCP 41(e), the five year rule, should be waived and Barrier's case allowed to go to trial.

Judge Gonzalez dismissed Rizzolo's defamation action against Barrier. In September 2000, Rizzolo sued his next door neighbor for accusing the strip bar owner of racketeering -- one of the charges Rizzolo pleaded guilty to last summer.

Judge Gonzalez then ordered that a Writ of Attachment be granted against Rizzolo for $1 million dollars to be deposited immediately into an interest bearing escrow account in the likely event Barrier wins at trial.

After reading a Purchase Agreement never meant for her eyes, Judge Gonzalez determined that Barrier may not be able to collect if he wins. Therefore, the judge made sure the funds would be available if and when they are needed.

Prior to last Thursday, in his five year old harassment lawsuit against Rizzolo, Barrier had met with nothing but road blocks.

His previous judge Nancy M. Saitta (now a Justice on the Nevada Supreme Court) sanctioned Barrier $4,500 for "wasting the time" of Rizzolo's attorneys. She did this after making the statement: "Mr. Rizzolo has a good name in the community." Saitta ordered Barrier to pay the law firm of Patti & Sgro before leaving the courtroom. Then she dismissed the racketeering portion of his suit calling it "meritless."

In an effort to humiliate Barrier, he was forced to write Rizzolo's lawyers a check while she watched from her bench.

It was later discovered that Rizzolo was one of Saitta's heaviest campaign contributors and that she enjoys a close personal relationship with him and his family.

Saitta's ruling and complimentary statement led Steve Miller to write his AmericanMafia.com column "A Judge in Their Pocket," and share his Saitta files with the Los Angeles Times and FBI.

Saitta was a subject of the June 2006 Los Angeles Times story JUICE VS. JUSTICE | A TIMES INVESTIGATION; "In Las Vegas, They're Playing With a Stacked Judicial Deck. Some judges routinely rule in cases involving friends, former clients and business associates -- and in favor of lawyers who fill their campaign coffers," by Michael J. Goodman and William C. Rempel.

Steve Miller is reporting that Mike Signorelli is shopping for a $38 million loan to close his supposed purchase of Crazy Horse Too. His source said that Signorelli is asking for a 100 percent loan, without offering collateral or asking about interest. Signorelli has until May 31 to close the purchase according to his confidential loan agreement. Miller suggests that Signorelli should go to Las Vegas mayor, Oscar Goodman, for the money. After all, Oscar has been working hard to keep the Crazy Horse Too open, even as current owner Rick Rizzolo sits in a Los Angeles jail on an apparent drunk driving charge and is to enter a federal prison in June on his racketeering conviction. As for Signorelli, he recently received a permanent liquor license from the Las Vegas city council, even against the advice of the city attorney and Metro officers who believe Rizzolo is still running the club. For more go to Steve Miller's columns at AmericanMafia.com.