Restaurateur pleads not guilty to snatching reporter’s phones
Woman tied to mobster’s chain of failed eateries
A restaurant owner faces a robbery charge after police accused her of snatching two cellphones belonging to an Arizona Republic reporter, then pushing and shoving her way out of a 2019 interview.
Tawny Costa, who operates Italian Parma Roots in Scottsdale, could face up to three years in prison if convicted. She has pleaded not guilty.
Costa served as the front woman in a mobster’s nationwide chain of failed Rascal Flatts restaurants and is behind the closure of several other eateries from San Diego to Boston.
Neither Costa nor her lawyer would comment on the case Monday.
Costa is accused in police reports of assaulting Republic dining reporter Priscilla To ti yapungp ra se rt during a Dec. 5, 2019, interview at her now-defunct Phoenix restaurant, which also was called Italian Parma Roots.
To ti yapung pr as ertt old police that Costa agreed to be recorded during the interview, then became agitated when questioned about her track record of restaurant closures and her relationship with a former Mafia soldier named Frank Capri.
Costa grabbed To ti yapung pr as er t’ s cellphones off a table, then pushed and elbowed her before fleeing the restaurant, according to police reports.
Costa ditched To ti yapung pr as er t’ s phone in the trash of a nearby business, police reports indicate. The phones were not recovered.
Costa, through a lawyer, declined to speak to police about the incident, according to police reports.
An officer recommended charging Costa with robbery for taking the phones and using physical force by thrashing about to prevent To ti yapung pr as ertf rom getting them back, according to police reports.
To ti yapungp ra se rt said Monday the assault was unsettling.
“I’m thankful to have the support of my colleagues, as well as the police and prosecutor who investigated this case,” she said. “It wasn’t just the actual robbery that bothered me, it was the reason behind it: A restaurant owner stole private property ... to silence a story.”
Costa said during the interview with To ti yapung pr as ertt hat she was the “sole owner” of Parma and Capri was not involved in the dayto-day operation of the Phoenix restaurant.
Her claims were contradicted by Arizona liquor regulators, who forced the closure of her Phoenix restaurant in December and are now investigating the “legality of her ownership” of the Scottsdale restaurant.
Costa provided false and misleading information on liquor applications about the true ownership of Parma, the money behind it and her involvement in Rascal Flatts and other failed restaurants, according to an Arizona Department of Liquor Licenses and Control investigation.
“Costa engaged in a scheme to deceive,” Detective John Barchak wrote in a 19-page report.
Barchak said Costa admitted that she did not pay any state or federal income tax from 2015 to 2019, refused to comply with a subpoena to turn over financial documents and deceived authorities about her relationship with Capri.
Barchak’s report follows a Republic investigation into Capri and Costa that began in 2015.
Capri is best known for the epic failure of his Toby Keith’s I Love This Bar and Grill restaurant chain, which went under in 2015 amid allegations of fraud and theft. He was also behind the financial ruin of 19 Rascal Flatts restaurant projects that were set up in Costa’s name.
Capri’s real name is Frank Gioia Jr. He was a “made man” in the notorious Lucchese crime family when he flipped to become a government witness in the 1990s. Authorities said his testimony led to the conviction of more than 70 organized crime figures.
The Republic documented Gioia’s transformation into Capri through the Federal Witness Protection Program. It showed how he used his new identity to build himself up as an Arizona real estate mogul and restaurateur and then bilked developers out of tens of millions of dollars.
Capri’s company, Boomtown Entertainment, built 20 Toby Keith restaurants beginning in 2009 and announced plans to build 20 more that never opened. It closed 19 restaurants in about 18 months. Even as restaurants went under, Capri was announcing plans to open locations that were never built.
By 2017, judges in cities across the country ordered him or his companies to pay at least $65 million in civil judgments. But Capri was already at work on his next big restaurant failure: Rascal Flatts.
Capri’s name does not appear on corporate documents tied to the Rascal Flatts restaurants. But secretly recorded audiotapes of Capri’s phone calls obtained by The Republic showed he oversaw hiring, firing, employee payments, permits, construction schedules and collection of development fees.
Neither Keith nor Rascal Flatts were involved in the operation of the restaurants. They sold naming rights to Capri or his companies. Rascal Flatts later terminated its licensing agreement as the restaurant projects failed.
Capri, 53, of Scottsdale, was arrested in 2020 and is being held without bail in an Arizona prison pending trial on fraud, conspiracy and money laundering charges. The FBI and the U.S. Department of Justice for years have declined to answer questions about Capri or the trail of financial destruction that followed him out of the Witness Protection Program.
Federal authorities have accused Capri of using restaurant licensing deals with Toby Keith and Rascal Flatts as a lure to defraud developers across the country. They said Capri enlisted his mother and other associates to funnel money meant to pay for restaurant construction at malls into their own accounts.
Authorities said they used fraudulent paperwork, fabricated contractors, forged signatures and false notary stamps to convince developers work was progressing on projects when it wasn’t.
Federal authorities do not name Costa in the indictment. They refer to her as a Capri “nominee.”
Capri and Costa have orchestrated the failure of 65 restaurant projects since 2013 that either closed after opening, were left unfinished or never started; 39 under Capri and 26 under Costa’s name, according to a Republic tally.
Costa has described her relationship with Capri differently depending on who is asking the questions.
She told Barchak they began their relationship in 2013 and it ended sometime in 2019. She said even though they lived together, they weren’t a couple for at least a year.
Capri is father to Costa’s two daughters.
Costa initiated calls to The Republic in 2017 posing as other people to gather information for Capri. She later acknowledged the ruse and described herself as Capri’s girlfriend and his facilitator.
Costa claimed in 2018 she didn’t know about Capri’s Mafia past and denied being his girlfriend.
“While they at one point in time had a personal relationship … Ms. Costa is and was not Mr. Capri’s girlfriend,” a lawyer representing Costa wrote in a letter to The Republic.
The letter was sent at the same time Costa was helping Capri to develop Rascal Flatts restaurants.
In 2018, Costa also took over as manager for Capri’s last remaining Toby Keith restaurant in Foxborough, Massachusetts. She appeared at a public meeting to assure public officials the restaurant was in good hands. It closed for good in 2019.
Costa admitted in 2019 to fronting the Rascal Flatts restaurants for Capri. In a series of texts to The Republic, Costa said Capri manipulated her into putting her name on corporation and business records for restaurants from Hawaii to Florida.
She claimed she was inexperienced and naive. Costa’s sister also had a role in the Rascal Flatts restaurants, records show.
Costa has similarly given various explanations of her ownership roles in now shuttered restaurants. In publications and in interviews she has described herself as the owner of restaurants, including Parma.
When questions have arisen over closures and lawsuits involving those restaurants, Costa has said she is only a manager or a member of the controlling limited liability company.
Costa opened Parma on Indian School Road near 36th Street in 2019 and operated under an interim liquor license for more than a year.
But just before a Dec. 3 hearing by the State Liquor Board on her permanent license, Costa withdrew her application and closed the restaurant.
Barchak raised doubts about Costa’s ownership of Parma, saying financial records and interviews indicated Capri maintained interests in both the Phoenix and Scottsdale restaurants.
The report cited five violations that could have prevented Costa from getting a liquor license under Arizona law, including her lack “of good moral character” and her “capability, qualification and reliability.”
Barchak said Costa failed to disclose two prior arrests; one in Dallas County, Texas, in 2011 and in Scottsdale in 2015. She pleaded guilty to misdemeanors in both cases.
He also highlighted Costa’s assault of Totiyapungprasert.
alleged
Among the vagaries of Arizona history, I often consider how different our economy would be if Ambassador James Gadsden’s purchase of land from Mexico in 1853 had — as sought by President Franklin Pierce — included access to the Sea of Cortez and the oceans beyond.
But it was not to be.
Ever since, Arizona governors have sought the next best thing: a vibrant and energized trading relationship between Arizona and the Mexican state of Sonora. After all, a crucial driver of our economic growth is our relationship with Mexico — our largest trading partner.
Today this trade represents more than $17 billion of economic activity.
The border relationship was badly damaged by Senate Bill 1070, and has more recently suffered the headwinds of presidential diplomatic hostility.
But Gov. Doug Ducey and Sonoran Gov. Claudia Pavlovich have successfully stabilized and nurtured the relationship. Their collaboration landed electric vehicle manufacturer Lucid Motors in Casa Grande, with parts created in Sonora, and created a Rocky Point safety corridor for Arizona beach-goers.
Meanwhile, private developers have seized the moment to create the Skybridge project and the Uniform Cargo Processing Center in Mesa — the only interior port in the United States.
Further, the governor is expected to imminently sign SB 1420, another significant bipartisan bill sponsored by state Sen. Paul Boyer that enables the ability of foreign visitors to use consular ID cards for personal identification.
This bill reverses one of the last overreaching anti-immigrant policies that were swept into that ugly SB 1070 era of Arizona’s recent history. And it affects well over 100,000 people, many in the trading economy, and all of them Arizona consumers.
Meanwhile, Arizona again has a federal partner that seeks to optimize the relationship and full binational economic potential.
President Joe Biden has pledged to restore border commerce and fully leverage the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement. Following Monday’s meeting between Biden and Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, Biden referred to Mexico as a “partner” and an “equal,” while López Obrador pledged to “cooperate for development” and that we are “stronger together.”
Last Friday, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with his Mexican counterparts. Both cited the current border restrictions as damaging to business and communities dependent on cross-border traffic. They agreed that the need to normalize border functionality was urgent.
Congress is set
to consider — and likely pass — an immigration measure later this month.
And with the soon-anticipated, bipartisan national infrastructure initiative, the opportunity is ripe to modernize our ports of entry and fund the Interstate 11 corridor. This federal highway from Nogales to Canada will position Arizona at the heart of the new trading activity that stems from the North American trading agreements.
Arizona Sens. Kyrsten Sinema and Mark Kelly are leading on this, and it should be a top priority for our full congressional delegation in the ensuing infrastructure debate.
The environment for continued and accelerated success is now upon us. Our elected leaders are engaged, and Arizona is poised to make the most of it.
We didn’t get an ocean port, but our ship has come in.
Fred DuVal is a member of the state Board of Regents, a former senior White House aide and a 2020 Hunt-Kane Fellow. Reach him at fredduval@cox.net.
reform
Rep. Paul Gosar spoke at The America First Political Action Conference (AFPAC), a white extremist group, in Florida last Friday and then attended CPAC the next day.
Instead of being present in Congress to vote in person on COVID relief, he notified the House that he could not be there because of the ongoing pandemic.
Fear of COVID within the hallowed chambers of the Capitol, where members and staff have been vaccinated and restrictive protocols are in place, did not seem to deter him from attending two events where sanitation practices were quite lax.
To be blunt: Gosar lied. And so did Reps Gaetz (Fl); Boebert (CO), Cawthorn (NC) and other Republicans who also “cited the ongoing health emergency” to be absent from Congress while attending AFPAC or CPAC or both.
What else do these paragons of truth and honesty lie about? Election fraud, maybe?
Dave Bergner, Mesa
The more Phoenix wins, the more Devin Booker is being recognized.
After being named NBA Western Conference player of the week for the second time this season, Booker received his first career Western Conference Player of the Month honor after leading the Suns (22-11) to 12-3 record in February.
Only Utah (27-8), which has the league’s best record, had a better record in February than Phoenix as the Jazz went 12-2 last month.
“The game is about winning,” Suns coach Monty Williams said before Tuesday’s game in Los Angeles against the Lakers. “That drives a lot of the residual stuff that you can potentially enjoy. That’s what we’re about. That’s what he’s about. We certainly are happy about it. We’d love to be in that situation every month. It’s huge for Devin. It’s huge for the organization. His teammates are excited about all of it.”
Averaging
27.9
points
on
52.3%
shooting in February, Booker knocked down 39.5% of his 3s and 85.2% of his free throws last month.
Booker started the month hitting a game-winning 3 in a stunner Feb. 1 at Dallas and closed it with a season-high 43-point eruption in Sunday’s 118-99 win at Minnesota.
The now two-time All-Star selection has become the first Suns player to win the monthly honor since Amar’e Stoudemire in March 2010.
Stoudemire earned the honor during the last season Phoenix made it to the playoffs. Booker has the Suns on track to return to the postseason as they’re fourth in the West going into Tuesday’s games.
Booker hadn’t received a conference player of the week honor in his first five NBA seasons that all ended with losing records. He’s won the award twice this season with the second coming the final week of February. He’s won the award twice this season with the second coming the final week of February.
Fellow All-Stars Stephen Curry (Golden State Warriors), Luka Dončić (Dallas Mavericks), Nikola Jokić (Denver Nuggets) and Donovan Mitchell (Utah Jazz) were nominees for the latest Western Conference Player of the Week award.
Along with playing in the March 7 All-Star game in Chicago, Booker will also participate in the 3-point contest on the same day.
The 2018 champion and 2020 runner-up will be part of an All-Star group of Curry (2015 champ, 2016 runnerup), Mitchell, Chicago Bulls guard Zach Lavine (Chicago Bulls) and Boston Celtics tandem of Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum competing.