Residents: Developer ripped them off

Copyright © 2008
Gallup Independent
By Kathy Helms
Diné Bureau

WINDOW ROCK — Montana real estate developer Jeanne Rizzotto, who in March promised to bring millions of dollars to the Teec Nos Pos area, apparently has disappeared, leaving behind a trail of worthless checks and empty promises.

Former Navajo Nation Chairman Peter MacDonald, who was hired as a consultant by Rizzotto, is requesting law enforcement officials investigate Rizzotto, who came to Teec Nos Pos boasting that she was worth hundreds of millions of dollars and had plans to build an 18-hole golf course and upscale RV resort.

She claimed she could provide a bank letter of credit for $50 million and touted a development in Red Lodge, Mont., Of Course RV Resort, as a model. By September, she had proposed four separate golf courses, one in each of the Four Corners states, and had met with officials from the Ute Tribe in Colorado to discuss the concept.

The first hint of problems came with renovations to the Teec Nos Pos chapter house. Many local workers provided their services to the project, however, most now claim they were never paid.

Crucy Wilson thought Rizzotto was an angel that had come to her rescue when she offered to remodel her store, Frank’s Grocery, free of charge. “I wasn’t really thinking straight. My oldest brother had died, and while we were at my brother’s funeral, my sister died. I fell for it, damnit. I wish I hadn’t. I’ve been here 39 years. I’ve never let anybody take advantage of me like that,” she said Wednesday.

“When she started, she said I was only going to be closed one month. That was the month of June, and she was going to give me $4,000 to hold me until we opened up. She said she was going to remodel the store, put everything new in there and fix it up. We were waiting for the materials and everything was late all the time.

“Finally, on July 12 she gave me a $4,000 check. I took it to the bank and deposited it. They had it there for like two weeks. They kept sending it back to her bank for insufficient funds. The bank finally gave it back to me for me to collect.

“Her friend Mark wrote another check for $4,000 and he told me to go to the bank in Cortez after 10 a.m. and cash it.

We went, and when we got there they said insufficient funds. Mark said, ‘Well, go back Friday again. I should have some money in there.’ When I went back Friday, they had closed the account so I ended up with nothing.”

Wilson finally told Rizzotto to forget it. “I told her I didn’t want her fancy, rich-people stuff in there. I told her, ‘We’re poor people here. We need groceries. We don’t need that rich stuff.’” Wilson planned to reopen the best way she could, “but with no money, no income, there’s no way I can open it up again. The store is not even finished.

“The electrical is messed up, the plumbing is messed up — I can’t afford to buy even groceries. It would take about $6,000 or more to fill it up the way I had it. The stuff I had in there I donated it to the church and some of the people that helped me take the stuff out of the store because she wanted it empty by the first of June, so we emptied it out. If it weren’t for my two kids, I don’t know what I’d be doing now,” she said.

John McCulloch, owner of Teec Nos Pos Trading Post, cashed some of the payroll checks for people working on the chapter house renovation.

“ I think all her checks bounced. I’m out about $6,000 on the checks she had written to the boys that were working for her. None of those cleared. Then, there’s about an $800 motor home fuel-up diesel bill. She wrote a check for that and it was no good.”

McCulloch said he found it hard to believe that anybody was going to do a project in the Four Corners area such as the one Rizzotto had planned.

“It just didn’t seem like it was real feasible — four golf courses and 2,000 lots, and on and on. What I thought she was trying to do, my speculation on it, was just get that land tied up, get a 99-year lease on it, and see what the heck happens.”

MacDonald stated in a news release through his attorney, David Jordan, that he himself became a victim.

“Rizzotto broke into my e-mail account and downloaded my e-mails. She sent e-mails out on my account, pretending to be me. She claimed to have recordings and photographs of me in compromising positions.

“Always it was the same story: ‘Stay with me, or I will use this information to hurt you and your family.’ She showed me two guns that she carried with her at all times, and I became very afraid for the safety and well being of myself and my family,” he said.

MacDonald reportedly advised Rizzotto that he would no longer give in to the threats and left. On Monday morning, Rizzotto e-mailed negative information about him to people all over the country and then disappeared. Lake Havasu City Police are investigating her whereabouts.

“This effort to attack me has been devastating,” MacDonald said. “My foremost concern is the hurt that this has caused to my family.”

He said Rizzotto’s business activities encompassed five different states and that jurisdiction could be a problem.

Carbon County Attorney Robert Eddleman said Wednesday that Rizzotto is charged in Red Lodge with a felony forgery by common scheme and a felony bad check. The forgery charge involves her son, Jarrod Tomassi, who has accused her of forging his name on a June 2002 document that secured a debt for $66,684.

Eddleman said Rizzotto was picked up on a warrant around Mother’s Day for issuing a bad check in the amount of $155,000. She is due to be back in court in Montana on Sept. 24 on both charges.

“There aren’t any warrants issued for her at this time, but if she doesn’t show, I do have a petition to revoke her release,” he said.