Iffy cancer charity trolls anew in Las Vegas

Posted on by April 17, 2021
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Iffy cancer charityIt was Alice on the phone again at the New To Las Vegas world headquarters. She was shilling again for United Breast Cancer Foundation, imploring me to make a small pledge “for the ladies.” I kept saying I first wanted to review any literature she might care to mail me. On what likely was a recorded line, that was not a condition that pleased her, as it would not be possible for UBCF to follow up with a letter demanding I make good on my oral pledge. After going back and forth, she finally ended the call by beseeching me to tell three women to get mammograms.

Alice was not a real person but rather a voice generated by an interactive computer using artificial intelligence and monitored by a real human. This technology still has a way to go. In my opinion Alice wasn’t all that responsive to my remarks and actually came across as a little slow on the uptick.

Which I would say much the same about UBCF, which is based in Huntington, N.Y. After Alice called me a year ago, I researched the charity, saw how little of the cash donations went to items I considered meritorious, and wrote a withering post. Now I’m getting called again by UBCF and still being asked for money. So I’m nominating UBCF to my long-running list of “America’s Stupidest Charities.” It’s a roster of nonprofits that solicit me for a contribution after I already have strongly criticized them in a public post. Really, can it get any dumber than that? You can review the list elsewhere on this page.

Alice’s call gave me an excuse to dig up UBCF’s latest available financial filings and conduct a fresh analysis. I was able to find the audited financial statement and IRS Form 990 filing for a later period, the year ending December 31, 2017, on the website of the North Carolina Secretary of State. (Despite a state law, the Nevada Secretary of State’s Office doesn’t post online meaningful financial filings). It’s still not a pretty picture. Continue reading →

Accused knife killer of homeless Las Vegas man I found had just left jail facing a sword charge

Posted on by April 6, 2020
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knife killer of homeless Las Vegas man

Jarrid Johnson (booking photo courtesy Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Dept.)

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It’s possible Jarrid Johnson, the man charged with stabbing to death the homeless Las Vegas fellow whose body I found last month on the street near my home, has a thing with blades.

According to my reading of the public court record, Johnson, 25, had been released without bail on his own recognizance less than two days earlier for another felony charge. That alleged offense: domestic violence using a sword!

Had Johnson remained in custody, he wouldn’t have been on the street to encounter Ralph Franzello, 63. It was Franzello’s lifeless body, surrounded by a lot of blood and his remaining life’s possessions in an overturned shopping cart, that I spotted on a deserted block while walking the dog near the New To Las Vegas world headquarters. The time was just before dawn on the morning of December 21–the year’s shortest day. I quickly called 911.

According to authorities, a remorseful Johnson turned himself in unprompted at the county jail three days later and confessed to the crime, saying he used Franzello’s own folding knife in the middle-of-the-night deed. One news account said Johnson acknowledged attacking Franzello after being caught going through Franzello’s possessions, presumably in the shopping cart that remained at the scene of the crime for several days thereafter. Johnson is being held on $500,000 bail pending a hearing scheduled for tomorrow.

But the same authorities that eagerly issued a press release about Johnson’s arrest didn’t bother to mention that he had been freed from custody literally hours earlier with the state’s consent pending trial in a separate case of violence involving clear indications of mental illness. At least, that’s what alleged use of a sword in an assault on a family member says to me. So the Johnson matter may well raise serious issues about how the overworked Nevada court system evaluates such troubled individuals even before being convicted. I also believe some of these details concerning Johnson’s background have not been reported elsewhere in the Las Vegas media.

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Belongings of slain homeless person purposefully left on Las Vegas sidewalk

Posted on by December 21, 2025
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slain homeless person

Slain homeless person’s possessions and blood at murder site two days later in Las Vegas

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Walking the dog Friday morning before dawn on the year’s shortest day, December 21, I came across a grisly sight near the New To Las Vegas world headquarters: the body of a homeless man on the side of a deserted semi-commercial cul-de-sac. Blood coated the asphalt around him. Nearby: an overturned shopping cart containing his possessions.

I called 911, and Las Vegas Metro Police units quickly responded. The street was closed off for about 12 hours as ambulances, detectives, police photographers, coroner office personnel and eventually some kind of hazmat clean-up team worked the site. Officers confirmed to me–and to the Las Vegas news media–that the man had been stabbed multiple times with a knife, likely overnight some hours before I passed by. A murder investigation is underway.

This morning, a full two days later, I walked that block again with the dog. I observed several elements of note, all of which I documented in a photo I took that is nearby.

First, someone had put a memorial lit candle by the spot where I found the body.

Touching.

Second, the hazmat team did such a poor job of cleaning that the victim’s blood was clearly visible in the street more than 48 hours later (that reddish rectangle to the left of the candle).

Gross.

Finally, the victim’s meager possessions were still in the shopping cart, which had been righted and put on the sidewalk.

Indefensible.

I am advised that it is official Metro policy to leave the belongings of deceased homeless folks where they are found if in a public place. Two officers told me Metro feels it doesn’t have the legal authority to take away stuff that isn’t evidence. Even putting aside the obvious lack of dignity and humanity, that’s ridiculous. Authorities surely can temporarily store such goods until the victim is identified, and any next-of-kin notified and given the chance to retrieve the possessions.

This is taking way too far the semi-official Las Vegas slogan, “What happens here, stays here.”

Update on December 27, 2018:

If a report on KVVU-TV, the Fox affiliate, is to be believed, the killer might have been asleep in a nearby dumpster when I found the body, and not discovered by the police who quickly responded. According to the report, one Jarrid Johnson, 25, walked in the county jail three days later and confessed to the crime. He was charged with murder with a deadly weapon. The homeless person victim was identified as Ralph Franzello. He reportedly caught Johnson going through his things, a fight ensued and Johnson repeated stabbed Franzello, quite possibly with the victim’s own knife.

Further update on January 1, 2019:

A notice on a Las Vegas funeral home website says Franzello was 63 years old, two decades older than the original estimates in news account of a man in his 40s. No other details were given.

Yet another update on January 3, 2019:

Nearly a week after KVVU-TV, citing a police report, identified the victim as Ralph Franzello, the Clark County Coroner’s Office confirmed the ID and ruled his death a homicide. Stated cause of death: “multiple sharp and blunt force injuries.” That certainly would account for all the blood I saw when I found the body. Meanwhile, according to the website of the Clark County Detention Center, Jarrid Johnson, the accused killer, remains jailed in lieu of $500,000 bail and has some kind of hearing scheduled for January 18.

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It Didn’t Stay Here: Alleged bribe to NY cop included hooker in Las Vegas

Posted on by January 5, 2020
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hooker in Las VegasSee update at end of story

t continues to amaze me how questionable stuff that happens in Las Vegas can make big news elsewhere but not cause much of a stir here.

My latest example is a long-running criminal case in New York City currently the subject of a federal-court trial. Among other things, James Grant, a former high-ranking New York Police Department officer, is accused of taking bribes that included a room at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas during a Super Bowl weekend and the services of a hooker who flew in with him on a private jet to, ah, watch the game with him.

This scandal has been playing itself out in the New York media for more than two years, with headlines like “Ex-Hooker Testifies About Vegas Debauchery at NYPD Bribery Case.” That came during the ongoing criminal trial, in which a verdict hasn’t been reached. But you wouldn’t know about the case from the Las Vegas media. A search of the online Las Vegas Review-Journal archives shows no coverage at all. In 2016 the Las Vegas Sun website ran an Associated Press story about the arrest of Grant that mentioned (1) the hooker, (2) Super Bowl weekend, (3) the private jet and (4) a fancy hotel room while editing out (5) this took place in Las Vegas.

Still, the caper is good enough to make Grant and co-defendant Jeremy Reichberg, accused of bribing him, candidates for my list, It Didn’t Stay Here. This is a roster of folks in trouble elsewhere for something that happened in Las Vegas. Still New To Las Vegas, I call this my continuing rebuttal to “What Happens Here, Stays Here,” the famous (or infamous) marketing pitch of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority. Previous nominees, which includes some big names, can be found elsewhere on this page. Continue reading →

Tax filings raise questions about Las Vegas charity for fallen cops

Posted on by April 17, 2021
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Injured Police Officers FundNearly two years ago, not long after becoming New To Las Vegas, I wrote in this space about the Injured Police Officers Fund. It’s a now-36-year-old Las Vegas-based charity accepting tax-deductible contributions whose stated mission is to “provide financial assistance to families of officers injured or killed in the line of duty” in Southern Nevada.

Based on my review of the organization’s 2015 federal tax return and my many years writing about nonprofits, I declared then that the IPOF, which sometimes pops up in the local news after an officer is hurt or killed, seemed a cut above most law enforcement-themed charities. This was mainly because the IPOF eschewed direct mail and telephone cold-calling in its fundraising efforts and so didn’t hand over most of the money raised to outside paid telemarketers, as was often the case with cop charities.

But fundraising is only one part of any charity’s performance. So when the IPOF’s tax return for 2017 became public record last month, I decided to find filings as many years back as I could to make a long-term assessment. I was able to locate 17 tax returns in the public record from 2001 to 2017–nearly half the IPOF’s entire existence. Putting all the data on a spreadsheet, I crunched the numbers.

Alas, I regret to say that the larger picture suggests a number of troubling questions about how the money the IPOF received was spent–or not. And since I last wrote about the charity, it seems that wives of some police officers have started asking pointed questions of their own about the IPOF. They even have an open Facebook group page suggesting that something iffy is afoot. Continue reading →

Las Vegas contingent falters on Forbes 400 list

Posted on by October 5, 2018
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Forbes 400Keeping a fortune growing smartly can be as hard as amassing it in the first place, at least around Las Vegas. That’s my New To Las Vegas take-away from the latest annual edition of the famous Forbes 400 list of the richest Americans, which was released this week.

Last year’s roster listed nine from Vegas. This year: just seven. And most of the remaining ones did not outperform the average 7% yearly gain of their peer group.

Casino czar and local newspaper owner Sheldon Adelson remained the wealthiest person in town (and the state) at No. 15 on the Forbes list. The 85-year-old was valued at $35.5 billion, up $100 million from last year. But that’s an increase of barely 1/4 of 1%. He dropped a click in the ranking.

Walmart heiress Nancy Walton Laurie, 67, remained the richest woman in town (and the state) with a really good year. She was up $800 million, a hefty 16%, to $5.7 billion, also moving up her 13 notches from last year to No. 109.

But Andrew and Peggy Cherng, owners of the Panda Express Chinese restaurant empire, completely disappeared from the U.S.-only list. Last year they shared a No. 226 rank with a combined net worth of $3.3 billion. It’s my understanding that Forbes now values couples actively involved in a business individually. With the cut-off this year for the list–No. 400–rising to $2.1 billion a head, that means the Cherngs between them would have needed $4.2 billion. Forbes figures they’re now down to $2.9 billion. Continue reading →