Rizzotto checks in —
Developer safe, in hospital
 Jeanne Rizzotto |
LAKE HAVASU, Ariz., — Montana developer Jeanne Rizzotto returned safely to her home in Lake Havasu Wednesday evening and checked into Lake Havasu Regional Medical Center on Thursday, according to Lake Havasu City Police.
Lt. Rich Soma said he received a call from a neighbor around 1:06 p.m. stating that she was taking Rizzotto to the hospital.
“She had no physical issues or ailments. I guess you could say she is being checked out for emotional issues,” Soma said.
Rizzotto, owner of Century 21 in Red Lodge, Mont., was in the process of developing an 18-hole championship golf course and upscale RV park in the Teec Nos Pos area of the Navajo Nation when she was reported missing Tuesday morning in Lake Havasu after neighbors found several notes and became alarmed.
“She said she floated across the river, spent some time on the Chemehuevi Indian Reservation along the shoreline and then paddled back across,” Soma said. The reservation is on the California side of the Colorado River.
Police sent up a helicopter to search for Rizzotto on Tuesday, however, “She said she didn’t see the helicopter or anything, and then last evening went back into her trailer,” Soma added. Police spent roughly 40 to 50 man hours searching for her.
Rizzotto has pending bad check and forgery charges in Red Lodge and is scheduled to appear in court in Carbon County on Sept. 24. “We have served her a subpoena as a courtesy to Carbon County for that appearance,” Soma said.
Meanwhile, residents in Teec Nos Pos who claim they were issued more than $10,000 in worthless checks while working for Rizzotto, met Wednesday evening and are compiling a package of information, including copied checks, to hand over to the Apache County Attorney’s Office.
Former Navajo Nation Chairman Peter MacDonald, who had worked for Rizzotto as a consultant, has called for a police investigation. But it’s not only the people in Teec who are feeling they were misled by Rizzotto.
Debbie Stout of Red Lodge, who worked for Rizzotto about two years before being terminated Labor Day weekend, and Mark Hill, a fireman from Los Angeles, both said they made a lot of personal sacrifices while working on the Teec project. Stout’s house in Red Lodge is now in foreclosure and Hill estimates he’s out around $80,000 to $85,000.
“The idea was to make sacrifices now and the payoff will come when it all comes to fruition,” Stout said. “That didn’t happen.” She said she basically did not get paid all summer and her house in Red Lodge is now in foreclosure.
“Jeanne and I were friends, and when she got income from one her buildings or had extra money or whatever, she would help me. She’s not a cruel person. We worked together. A couple different times she talked about giving a bonus check, but never did.
“I guess you would say I’m a victim too. ... I don’t want all those people (in Teec) thinking, ‘She’s in on it too.’ They need to know that I really am the nice person that I appeared to be when I was there. I did my job and I was a very loyal employee and a very loyal friend. But I sacrificed too.”
Hill, who has worked more than 20 years for Los Angeles Fire Department, became acquainted with Rizzotto after purchasing some property from her in Montana.
“She was going to do her project in Montana, the golf course called ‘Of Course.’
“Through that she started the process with Four Corners. I stayed with her for that entire process. From the very beginning I paid for my own way on everything in terms of plane tickets, in terms of my expenditures on traveling and everything. I was excited about it, and Jeanne weaves a great story.”
Hill said he was put in charge of renovations at Teec chapter house and Frank’s Grocery, owned by Crucy Wilson, both of which Rizzotto offered to do free of charge.
“I never once, never, ever got paid a nickel by her. She’s written me checks, but they always bounced. I’ve never had a check from her that didn’t bounce. He said he didn’t charge her for his labor because he was going to get a piece of the pie when the project all came about. “But what I did want to do is get reimbursed for my expenditures, which was only fair.”
Rizzotto previously said she spent $10,000 of her own money on the renovation. “Let’s see her Home Depot bill and let’s see mine,” Hill said.
He was working side by side with the people in Teec and developing a relationship with them.
“She had written many checks that had bounced,” he said. “I felt bad because my dad always taught me, ‘If a man does work, you pay him, and you don’t make him beg for the check.’”
He said he pushed Rizzotto to pay the workers. “So what we came up with — and Mr. MacDonald was in the room at the time — I went down and I put in $100 and started an account in the bank in Cortez. Jeanne said we were going to have Debbie transfer like $28,000-$30,000 to that account.
We had about $25,000 in checks that needed to be written.”“I went to the bank, I explained to them, ‘I want to open this account up, I’m going to be writing a bunch of checks out of here, and there will be a big deposit that should come in late this evening.’ I told everybody, ‘Do not cash your check until Monday.’
“So Debbie screws up and didn’t get the money transferred. She felt awful, but she did not get the money transferred on Friday. A lot of things were going on. She forgot about it. So I called everybody and I said, ‘Wait until Tuesday or Wednesday to cash your checks.’
“Then Jeanne said, ‘I’ll be going back to Montana and I’ll take care of it Monday morning.’ I’m thinking, ‘Well, OK, that should work. Well, guess what? She never took care of it, and she never bothered to take care of it. She had to go to court Monday morning, which she never told me about,” Hill said Wednesday.
Stout now says Rizzotto “conned him into opening an account and writing checks. He’s innocent. There was no transfer.” Asked whether there had been any money to transfer, Stout said,"
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