Prosecutor going after hip-hop mogul ‘Suge’ Knight

By Jeff German (contact)

Saturday, Nov. 15, 2008 | 2 a.m.

District Attorney David Roger says he expects to file a criminal complaint Monday against Marion “Suge” Knight stemming from an Aug. 27 incident in which police allege they saw the hip-hop mogul wielding a knife and punching a naked woman in a parking lot off the Strip.

Police also say that when they arrested Knight early that morning, they found illegal drugs on him.

“It took a while for the lab to analyze the substances, which caused a delay in filing the charges,” Roger said Friday. “Considering Mr. Knight’s notoriety, these are serious charges.”

Police still haven’t located the victim, Melissa Isaacs, to get a more comprehensive statement from her, Roger said.

The felony complaint is expected to charge Knight with battery and two counts of possession of a controlled substance, Ecstasy and hydrocodone, a potent pain reliever derived from codeine.

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Vincent Faraci’s return to the topless club business may not be as easy as he thought.

Clark County licensing investigators this week informed the felon’s new employer, Rick’s Cabaret, that he must apply for a key employee license as the club’s general manager within 30 days. If that doesn’t happen, officials said, they would cite the club for violating the county code.

Investigators issued the written warning to Rick’s Cabaret, which is owned by a publicly traded company, Wednesday night, hours after the Sun had inquired with police and county officials about Faraci’s status in the topless club business.

Faraci, 53, who authorities have alleged is tied to the Bonanno crime family in New York, was a longtime shift manager at the now-closed Crazy Horse Too. After a federal racketeering investigation, Faraci and 15 other club employees, including former owner Rick Rizzolo, pleaded guilty in 2006 to failing to report their share of dancers’ tips to the IRS.

After he got out of prison last year, Faraci was able to obtain a key employee license to work at a smaller strip club, Eden, despite objections from Metro Police and county licensing officials.

Records obtained by the Sun show that county officials found him unsuitable to hold a key employee license in July 2007 because of his federal tax conviction, but a hearing officer later overturned the denial on appeal.

Metro spokesman Bill Cassell said police had documented “several concerns” about Faraci in a background report to the county. Cassell declined to detail those concerns, but he said police always look at an applicant’s criminal history and associations when they conduct background investigations.

Under the county code, Faraci’s key employee license at Eden does not transfer over to Rick’s Cabaret, Cassell said. He must apply for a new license and go through the background process again at his new place of employment.

That would give police and licensing investigators, who can’t be happy that the hearing officer ignored their concerns last time, another crack at him.

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Investigators with the district attorney’s office are licensed peace officers, but they usually don’t deal with crime on the streets.

While driving on East Cheyenne Avenue in North Las Vegas this week, however, investigators Matthew Johns and Jamie Honaker foiled an armed robbery.

Johns and Honaker noticed a woman in distress trying to flag down motorists for help at a bus stop and shortly afterward spotted a man riding a bicycle with a purse hanging on the handle bars. They pulled over the bicyclist and were questioning him, when he reached for something in his waistband. That prompted the investigators to restrain the man and call North Las Vegas police for assistance.

Johns and Honaker found a five-inch folding knife on the bicyclist. They later learned from police the woman alleged the bicyclist had threatened her with that knife when he robbed her of her purse.