Crazy Horse Too keeps license

09:28 AM PT, Apr 19 2007

You would think, with all of the effort elected city officials have put into keeping topless bar Crazy Horse Too open, the place must offer some essential and irreplaceable service to the city. Well, it is the room where Dita and Jenna Jameson both got their start. But mostly, these days, the club is known for scandal and the occasional customer allegedly beaten by the bouncers in bar tab disputes.

To work this all out, Rick Rizzolo, the old owner of Crazy Horse Too, was required to sell the club as part of a plea deal that included guilty pleas from 14 of his employees and associates. But the problem from the first has been hints that the new owner, Mike Signorelli, has allowed old owner, Rizzolo and company to stick around and influence the running of the club. Originally, the sale agreement was so brazen that Rizzolo would even have been allowed to have an office at the club. Why would Rizollo want an office there when he no longer owned Crazy Horse Too? (And, when he was not allowed to have any involvement with the club at all?) The office idea got tossed from the agreement.

But the more the city council kept demanding rules for a separation between Rizzolo and Crazy Horse Too, the more questions kept popping up about events there connected to Rizzolo. Yet rather than take action, the city council also kept voting to extend the club's temporary liquor license while these matters were investigated by police and the city attorney. Yesterday came the day of reckoning for Crazy Horse Too as both gave their reports to City Council and neither vouched for the new owner. Las Vegas justice was served anyway. The Las Vegas Review-Journal reports:

"The council members voted unanimously to give the licence to Mike Signorelli despite recommendations from the city attorney and Las Vegas police to deny the application."

According to the Review-Journal, the police report offered this devastating opinion: "A reasonable person could draw the conclusion that Signorelli is simply running the business for Rizzolo, who is forbidden to do so." One city council member Larry Brown deserves some sort of award for offering this inexplicable explanation for his inexplicable vote. According to the Review-Journal: "Councilman Larry Brown said that if the permanent liquor license were denied 'another Signorelli would pop up here' applying for a liquor license." What does "another Signorelli" mean?

Back in the day, before the plea deal with the Feds, Rizzolo was known for his political connections and friendships. Mayor Goodman abstained on this vote because of a connection to Jay Brown, Signorelli's lawyer; another city council member abstained without explanation. Looking at the vote for Crazy Horse Too, veteran Nevada political commentator Jon Ralston marveled in an e-mail sent to his private subscriber list:

"Despite City Attorney Brad Jerbic advising them that Mike Signorelli 'can't run the business' and is 'incapable" of keeping Rick Rizzolo's influence out of the strip joint, council members (all of them) essentially approved Signorelli attorney Jay Brown's written proposal (with a few additions so they can look tough) to give his client a permanent license at Crazy Horse Too. And Brown pal Oscar Goodman didn't even participate! That's juice."

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