Thursday, July 22, 2004
The prosecutor said if obligated to pay extra for airfare, he will.
By PATRICIA MEADE
VINDICATOR CRIME REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- John Rizzotto says he's lawyer shopping because he was lied to about how much reward money he'd get for a cop killer's capture.
"You got two things in your life -- your name and your word," Rizzotto, a Cadillac salesman in Clearwater, Fla., said Wednesday. "It's not the money; it's the principle. They have not kept their word."
A committee determined that Rizzotto will get $10,000 of the $40,000 reward and the balance will be evenly split among four men employed by Independent Taxi in April 2003 when Martin L. Koliser Jr. shot a patrolman to death. The cabbies -- three have since quit -- witnessed the shooting, and Rizzotto's efforts led to Koliser's capture at a Florida motel.
Reward promises
Rizzotto said FBI agents in Florida told him, "You just earned $20,000," after Koliser surrendered. Rizzotto said he was later told he'd get the full $40,000 when more pledges came in and the reward doubled.
Koliser's friend's sister, Lisa Ferguson, is engaged to Rizzotto and put police in touch with him from her Austintown apartment.
Rizzotto said Wednesday that she would find him a lawyer here. Both mentioned Boardman attorney Thomas E. Zena, but Rizzotto said he'd heard that Zena may be too busy.
Zena could not be reached.
Rizzotto, who traveled to Youngstown for Koliser's trial in October 2003, said he's not been reimbursed for all those expenses, either. He said what he's owed for the trip obviously can't compare to what he should have received from the reward fund.
He said he hasn't been reimbursed for a meal and the extra it cost to take a later flight after he missed his scheduled flight.
He said because of the time change and Ferguson's being hospitalized in Florida after surgery, he missed an early-morning flight and took one a few hours later.
Who's responsible?
Mahoning County Prosecutor Paul J. Gains said the county prepaid for a three-night stay at the Holiday Inn in Boardman and then paid for the meals he ate there. The county also prepaid Rizzotto's airfare.
"Although Mr. Rizzotto claimed he charged the additional $242 [for the flight] on his credit card, this office was never supplied a copy of the credit card bill," Gains wrote in a memo to The Vindicator. "We are currently checking with the state auditor as to the county's obligation in paying the additional amount due to Mr. Rizzotto's negligence in failing to make the [scheduled] flight."
Gains said Rizzotto will be reimbursed if the auditor determines the county is responsible for the increase in airfare.
Rizzotto says he turned in a copy of the airfare receipt to Gains' office and kept a copy.
Rizzotto, whose meals charged at the Holiday Inn were paid by the county, said he was not reimbursed for a $20 dinner he ate at Lone Star because the prosecutor's office questioned whether it was really food and not liquor.
Gains denied that's what happened. He said tips cannot be reimbursed, but the county paid for Rizzotto's tips at the hotel and reasoned that, by not reimbursing him for the Lone Star receipt, everything came out even.
meade@vindy.com