Feds won’t give up documents seized in raid of topless club

Jace Radke

Tuesday, July 8, 2003 | 9:50 a.m.

The federal government will not concede that documents taken from the Crazy Horse Too topless club during an FBI raid were privileged legal documents, according to a response filed Monday by Assistant U.S. Attorney Eric Johnson.

Anthony Sgro, attorney for the Crazy Horse Too, had filed a motion in June asking Magistrate Peggy Leen to compel the FBI to return attorney-client materials he said were taken during the Feb. 20 raid and reviewed, which he said violated club owner Rick Rizzolo's Sixth Amendment rights.

Four civil case files involving the club have not been returned according to Sgro, who also asked Leen to hold two FBI agents in contempt of court for not revealing at a March 6 hearing that documents had been reviewed.

Crazy Horse personnel have had access to seized materials to make copies, and just because a file contains attorney correspondence or memoranda does not mean it is privileged, Johnson states in his response.

"The agents in reviewing the files observed that the files contained documents which did not appear to be privileged and which appeared to relate to business or financial transactions," the response states. "The agents seized the files because records of business and financial transactions were within the scope of the search warrant."

The search warrant, signed by Leen, was executed in connection with an FBI investigation into possible ties between the topless club and organized crime.

Sgro's motion also complained that the club's access to credit card receipts was cut off when the FBI sent the seized receipts to be analyzed at an FBI laboratory in Quantico, Va.

The receipts were sent off in May, and were expected to be gone for three weeks, but were not returned for five weeks because the laboratory had to analyze evidence involved with the arrest of the suspected Olympic bomber, pushing the receipts to a back burner.

The receipts are now again available for copying by the Crazy Horse Too, according to the response.

Leen has not yet set a hearing on Sgro's motion, but could set one as soon as today, court officials said.