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News 3 Investigation
Allegations Against 'Crazy Horse Too'

November 21, 2002

Glen Meek Reporting

The allegations sound like a plot from "The Sopranos" TV show: A topless bar -- brutal bouncers and employees with ties to organized crime figures. But it's a real life court case. And News 3 "Investigator" Glen Meek has been digging deeper into a grand jury probe of the "Crazy Horse Too" strip club.

Our own "News 3" investigation of the Crazy Horse reveals a list of men working at the club with arrest records ranging from battery to embezzlement. One former customer -- paralyzed after a dispute over his tab -- alleges security there is infested by a "rouges gallery" of thugs, thieves and drug pushers. We begin our report with that man's story.

Kirk Henry of Kansas gave his son Jared a bicycle on his Fifth birthday. But Henry will never ride bikes with his son again. He's confined to a wheelchair with a broken neck. "I have no movement at all in my hands and everything basically from my middle to upper chestline down -- I have no feeling." Henry was paralyzed on a visit to Las Vegas -- outside The Crazy Horse Too gentleman's club. Henry says he was trying to leave the club following a dispute over how many lap dances he paid for -- when a bartender or manager came up from behind. "And I, I felt my neck being twisted downward and wrenched to the side, to my left side. And I couldn't move, so I touched my legs and I couldn't feel 'em. At that point, I panicked and screamed out "I can't feel my legs!" Henry says the man who twisted his neck wasn't through with him yet. "He somewhat chuckled or snickered -- I don't know if he didn't believe me that I couldn't feel my legs -- but he came up to me and demanded that I give him my wallet, or I give him my credit card."

Henry says as he lay helpless in the parking lot, the bartender or manager removed his wallet from his pants, took out Henry's credit card, went back into the club and rang up about 80-dollars worth of lap dances. Henry was taken to Valley hospital. Fearing for his safety -- his wife listed him under an assumed name. "You know, you hope that -- or I was hoping that when he went in for surgery that the doctor would call me back and say "it's not as bad as we thought." But instead, he said,"it's worse than we expected. I can't play with my kids, I can't do any of the activities I used to enjoy. And I can't be with my wife -- it's been a dramatic change. A terrible change." And Henry believes he's paid a terrible price for a trivial dispute. "I never in my wildest dreams would imagine somebody would break my neck over something like this. It's just unbelievable."

But violence at the Crazy Horse is far from unbelievable. Records obtained by News 3 'Investigators' show the number of police responses to the club more than doubled from 1999-to-2001. Police records also reveal nine assault and six robbery cases involving Crazy Horse employees over a 2-year period.

The FBI is looking into whether there's pattern of customers being beaten or threatened when they objected to their tabs. "I disputed it right then and there because I didn't agree with the charges. I thought it was frivolous. And basically, I was coerced into signing the receipt." This local man -- who wanted his identity protected -- filed a police report after Crazy Horse employees put 3-thousand dollars in charges on his credit card. He says he doesn't even know how to spend 3-grand in a gentleman's club. "If I had 3-thousand dollars worth of lap dances -- I don't think I'd be walking by morning time." The man says he only signed his credit card receipt out of fear. "The bouncer, not the bouncer but the bartender said, "If you don't sign this tab you'll get your ass kicked like anybody else around this joint." basically, I was intimidated.

A former dancer says, "They take joy and delight in being able to hurt people. Just because. Just because they're bored. Just because they can and just because they know they'll never be held responsible for it." This former Crazy Horse Dancer says she's seen brutality -- but she's also seen bouncers simply scare customers into signing tabs. What are you gonna do if you're from the midwest and you've heard this is a Mafia town and the people that approach you are stereotypical Mafia types and they talk to you in a way that makes you believe you will disappear if you don't do it? what are you gonna do?"

The implication that customers who welch on their tabs are "messing with the mob" may not be that far fetched. Our investigation turned up several Crazy Horse Too employees with connections to organized crime. Ee requested an interview with "Crazy Horse Too" President Rick Rizzolo through his lawyer more than two weeks ago. Today we received a 2-page, faxed statement from attorney Anthony Sgro. It reads in part:

"We strongly dispute the idea that Crazy Horse Too has not done enough to maintain order and civility within the club." "Given that more than than a thousand people a day come to visit the Crazy Horse ... It is unavoidable that the occasional incident will occur."

The attorney suggests Henry Fell -- and was not harmed by anyone from the club.

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