Strip club gets back property from FBI

Jace Radke and Jeff German

Thursday, March 6, 2003 | 11:14 a.m.

About $836,000 in cash and script and the majority of the other items seized by the FBI in a Feb. 20 raid of the Crazy Horse Too topless club have been returned.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Eric Johnson turned over copies of a Rolodex, locker assignments and vacation requests as well as a box of correspondences between the club and its attorneys, following a hearing before U.S. Magistrate Peggy Leen this morning.

The cash and Crazy Bucks were returned to the club earlier this week. All of the computers seized have been returned, except for two components, an older tower hard drive and a more sophisticated computer that will require technical assistance from the manufacturer in order to download the needed information, Johnson said.

Also returned Thursday were the sheriff's cards of the workers in the club at the time of the raid.

Club owner Rick Rizzolo said he was pleased with the way the judge handled the hearing. "She gave us everything we asked for," he said.

Rizzolo said that though the raid hurt the club the day it happened, business has since returned to normal, saying that the well-publicized incident, "has given us free advertising."

The focus of the raid was to locate evidence of connections between the club and organized crime interests in New York and Illinois and to seize financial documents dating back to 1995, according to a federal search warrant.

Still not returned to the club are nine cash registers, about $10,000 in cash taken from a shift manager's office and credit card receipts and records. Johnson said that the items should all be returned next week.

Leen ordered a status check on the unreturned items for Wednesday and ordered a sealed box of copies of attorney client documents taken turned over to the court to ease Sgro's concerns about the FBI possibly reading the documents.

The raid shut down the club at 2476 S. Industrial Road for 14 hours.

Rizzolo has been linked over the years to several organized crime figures, including Joseph Cusumano, once a top lieutenant of slain mob kingpin Anthony Spilotro. Rizzolo has said he no longer associates with Cusumano.