Family claims Rizzolo target of arrests

Jace Radke

Friday, Jan. 21, 2005 | 10:58 a.m.

Michael Rubino was incensed Thursday after learning that his pregnant 28-year-old daughter would have to spend the night in jail.

He said she was a victim of an FBI witch hunt targeting strip club owner Rick Rizzolo.

The government "is trying to use my daughter to go against her husband so they can get her husband to go against Rick Rizzolo," Michael Rubino said after the continuation of an arraignment hearing for his daughter, Nicole Rubino, and her husband, Robert D'Apice, a shift manager at the Crazy Horse Too.

"They just want them to roll over on the club."

D'Apice, 50, was arrested Wednesday as he arrived for work at the Crazy Horse, and is charged in two federal indictments with racketeering, making false statements to a grand jury and tax evasion in connection with the FBI's ongoing investigation into violent crimes at the club.

Nicole Rubino, who is four months pregnant, turned herself in to federal authorities Thursday after being charged with tax evasion in the case. A third defendant, Paula McBride, a 27-year-old Henderson woman who is a former cocktail waitress at the club, is charged with making false statements to the grand jury.

McBride pleaded not guilty before U.S. Magistrate Judge Robert Johnston Thursday and was released on her own recognizance, but Rubino and D'Apice were ordered back to the Las Vegas Detention Center at Stewart Avenue and Mojave Road after their arraignments were continued to this afternoon.

Court officials said that they had been told that D'Apice and Rubino had retained an attorneys to represent them. Attorney Steven Stone, who traveled from Los Angeles to represent D'Apice and Rubino at the arraignment, had not been retained to represent the defendants for the entire case, and was not allowed to appear by Johnston.

Stone said he was not qualified to defend a criminal tax evasion case, but wanted to represent the couple during the arraignment.

Because they had no attorney, Johnston said that he would order attorneys appointed for them in the morning. A federal public defender, who was assigned to McBride, could not represent all three defendants Thursday because it is usually considered a conflict of interest for two defendants in the same case to be represented by one attorney.

Johnston said that he would appoint both Rubino and D'Apice seperate attorneys today.

Rubino's family members said that prosecutors told them that attorneys would be available to represent Rubino and D'Apice at the arraignment.

Natalie Collins, a spokeswoman with the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Nevada, said that prosecutors had no conversations with Rubino's family members but had been told that Stone would be appearing on behalf of D'Apice and Rubino.

Joan Rubino was in tears as she talked about her daughter spending the night in jail.

"How can they keep her in jail when she is pregnant?" Joan Rubino asked.

Nicole Rubino married D'Apice in March and had worked as a hairdresser before two foot operations forced her to stop working, her father said.

She was scheduled to see her doctor Thursday and had been ill recently, her parents said.

"She has no (criminal) record," said Robert Giaquinta, Nicole Rubino's uncle.

Michael Rubino added that "the only record she has is an Italian last name."

Rubino and D'Apice met when Rubino cut his hair, family members said.

Michael Rubino said that he was called to testify before the grand jury last month.

"I knew they were targeting my daughter," Rubino said.

Rubino said he was told by federal officials that he had better warn his daughter because his son-in-law was going away for a long time. He said he was asked questions about who paid for his daughter's wedding.

"I paid about $18,000 and my daughter paid the rest with her credit card," Michael Rubino said.

He added that his daughter had to take out a second mortgage on her home to pay off her credit card, and that she had used her own money to purchase the home that she and D'Apice were living in.

Rubino purchased a four-bedroom, 2640-square-foot home in Peccole Ranch in March 2003 for $280,000, according to Clark County Assessor's records.

"She had a prenuptial agreement," Michael Rubino said. "She knew that he (D'Apice) had some tax problems and that he was trying to negotiate with the IRS."

According to court documents D'Apice and Rubino are charged with failing to pay the government at least $40,000 in taxes from 1997 through 2004.

Giaquinta said he was sure that the only reason his niece was indicted was to put pressure on D'Apice to help the government in its pursuit of Rizzolo.

"What other reason is there to go after her?" Giaquinta asked. "How many people in this town don't report their tips and are never charged?"

The indictment, handed down earlier this week, charges D'Apice with a variety of federal racketeering charges including some related to the alleged assault of Kirk Henry, a Kansas man who was found outside the club with a broken neck in 2001.

Henry, who is now quadriplegic, is suing the club in Clark County District Court. He alleges that an altercation with bouncers and D'Apice on September led to his broken neck.

The indictment states that D'Apice and other male employees of the club, located at 2476 S. Industrial Road, wanted to promote an atmosphere of fear, and that D'Apice and others overcharged, threatened and assaulted patrons.

The federal grand jury and federal authorities have been investigating the club for nearly a decade, but the indictments against D'Apice are the only charges to come from the investigation thus far.

If convicted, D'Apice is facing up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine on the racketeering charge, while the false statement and tax evasion charges each carry a possible sentence of up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Johnston set a trial date of March 28 for McBride and today was expected to set trial dates and determine if D'Apice and Rubino will be released.