EX-COP: GIVE ME A HO-TO GUIDE!
Spitz madam says 'pimp' asked advice
The retired Brooklyn cop busted last week for allegedly running a multimilliondollar prostitution ring sought expert advice from Eliot Spitzer’s madam before starting his business, she claimed Sunday.
“I met [ex-Officer Michael Rizzi] a few years back at an event,” former “Manhattan Madam” Kristin Davis said on the AM 970 radio show “Morano in the Morning.”
“Didn’t know him before that, and he sort of mentioned that he was trying to open some sort of business.”
“I said repeatedly I don’t want to talk about these things because that’s in my past, and I don’t want to talk with some stranger about entering into an illegal venture that he kept trying to discuss,” she said.
Show host Frank Morano asked, “So he alluded basically to maybe getting your help in running some sort of prostitution ring?” Davis replied, “Yes.” Arrested Tuesday, Rizzi, 44, of Bensonhurst, has been accused by the feds of running a high-end prostitution ring in which johns paid as much as $20,000 a night.
Davis, who has claimed to have supplied the ex-governor with hookers, charged Rizzi was given preferential treatment at his arraignment because he’s a man.
The nine-year cop, who retired on disability in 2000, was sprung on $500,000 bail. Davis initially faced a $2 million bail after her 2008 arrest.
“Here he is taking a city pension and also ex-law enforcement. But because he’s a man, he gets a lesser bail?” said Davis, whose bail was later slashed to $400,000.
Rizzi was also released on $100,000 bail on state gunpossession charges stemming from his federal case.
His lawyer, Javier Solano, said Sunday that there was “absolutely no connection” between Rizzi and Davis.
“It’s just somebody who’s trying to get back into some sort of spotlight,” he said.
Prosecutors say Rizzi ran nearly 60 prostitution Web sites where hookers cost $400 to $2,000 a night.
“My girls make the most money. My clients are the wealthiest people in the world,” Rizzi once boasted, according to court papers.
Solano said it was a legal escort service, with no sex.
“I have interviewed many escorts that say time and time again, Michael always said to them that’s not this type of business,” he said.
Rizzi is married to the daughter of Gambino family muscle Richard Juliano.