Cops talk to charity group in McDonald probe

Jeff German and Erin Neff

Thursday, Sept. 7, 2000 | 11:25 a.m.

Metro Police investigating Las Vegas City Councilman Michael McDonald have questioned top officers of a high-powered charitable organization affiliated with the embattled elected official.

Among those interviewed in the criminal probe last week were Assistant District Attorney J. Charles Thompson, who is treasurer of the year-old organization, Youth Charities of Southern Nevada.

Thompson, the No. 2 man in the district attorney's office, said intelligence detectives wanted to know when the group decided to hold its July 14 sports memorabilia auction at Piero's restaurant.

The timing of the decision has become important in the police investigation into allegations McDonald violated the public's trust by trying to broker the sale of the financially troubled Las Vegas Sportspark for his boss, Larry Scheffler.

Scheffler, who owns Las Vegas Color Graphics, is a partner in the failing sports facility, which leases land from the city.

The investigation was launched last month after Don Schlesinger, another partner in the sports park, publicly accused McDonald of helping Scheffler and the other Sportspark partner, Linda Fernandez, find new investors.

One of those potential investors, Schlesinger charged, was McDonald's friend, Crazy Horse Too owner Rick Rizzolo.

Schlesinger said Scheffler led McDonald, Rizzolo and Rizzolo's attorney, Dean Patti, on a tour of the Sportspark in early May as part of his partners' efforts to sell the facility against his wishes.

A couple of weeks later, Schlesinger said, Scheffler wanted him to sign a contract drawn up by Patti that would have sold the sports park to the city of Las Vegas or a third party.

McDonald has insisted publicly that he and Rizzolo went on the May tour to scout the facility as a site for a charity softball game. Both McDonald and the topless night club owner are on the 27-member board of Youth Charities, which includes well-known community, civic and business leaders.

The Sportspark, McDonald, said, turned out not to be suitable for the tournament, and the event was scrapped in favor of the sports auction at Piero's.

Thompson said he told the detectives that McDonald never approached the Youth Charity's five-member executive board about the benefit softball tournament.

"He has never brought that concept or idea to our executive board," Thompson said. "I know it never came up."

The Piero's auction, he said, was approved by the board on March 22 and later announced to the full board on April 26, long before McDonald and Rizzolo toured the Sportspark.

But Mike Meyer, president of Youth Charities, said it would not be unusual for a board member of the group to attempt to put together a benefit without first informing the executive board.

"He doesn't have to bring it to us," said Meyer, who is director of athletics and community relations at the Community College of Southern Nevada. "Other people have brought things to me after the fact."

Meyer said he also was interviewed by detectives last week.

Detectives, he said, spent nearly two hours asking questions and poring over the group's minutes and financial records.

"I don't know what they were looking for, and I don't think they knew what they were looking for," Meyer said.

Meyer said Youth Charities is cooperating fully with police, but several influential members are unhappy that the organization has been dragged into the probe.

He said he's hoping it won't affect the fund-raising efforts of the volunteer group, which has donated $60,000 to various youth causes over the past year.

McDonald today declined comment.

"I'm waiting for Metro to finish its investigation before I make any comments," he said.

McDonald reportedly has hired well-known criminal defense lawyer Richard Wright to represent him in what has become two separate police investigations. The second probe involves McDonald's alleged involvement in the opening of a controversial church to block a topless club that might compete with Rizzolo's club.

Wright, who has developed a reputation for vigorously defending his clients, also reportedly will represent McDonald in any state and local ethics investigations, as well as any inquiry by the FBI.

A Youth Charities board member loyal to McDonald, meanwhile, defended the councilman's actions in the Sportspark flap.

"There is no doubt, there is no question that they went out to Sportspark for the charity," said the Rev. Dave Casaleggio, the former priest at Our Lady of Las Vegas and a close friend of McDonald and his family.

Casaleggio said he was invited to join McDonald, Rizzolo and Patti when they visited Sportspark in May, but had to decline because of another engagement.

And while several board members were talking about a sports auction and celebrity softball game, Casaleggio said not everyone was on the same page.

"Everybody was going off on their own little ways," he said.

Casaleggio said he, McDonald and Rizzolo favored a celebrity softball game with the likes of New York Mets catcher Mike Piazza helping raise money for the charity.

But any softball game would have to be accompanied by a sports memorabilia auction, Casaleggio said, and the Sportspark site didn't have the space indoors or the controls outdoors to pull that off.

Casaleggio said he views Rizzolo as a friend and doesn't care if some view the relationship between a priest and a strip club owner as odd.

"For a lot of people it's a strange association," Casaleggio said. "My friendship is not based on what he owns, it's who he is and what his family is like.

"I'm not afraid to associate with him," he added.

Casaleggio has flown to Chicago twice to help get Rizzolo's son enrolled into a private school associated with Notre Dame University.

He often eats dinner at Piero's with Rizzolo, choosing to bypass his collar in favor of dark suits and gold chains, sources who have seen him there said.

McDonald often works with Casaleggio and has been instrumental in bringing him into some of his city work. For example, McDonald has fronted Casaleggio's name for a spot on the Metro Police Citizen Review Board.

In addition to the two Metro investigations, the FBI also is questioning city officials and civic leaders, reportedly about McDonald's lifestyle and his relationship to Rizzolo.

One city official interviewed recently by the FBI said investigators also seemed interested in Casaleggio's associations with both McDonald and Rizzolo.

Rizzolo could not be reached for comment this morning.