Judge Delays Grosso Trial, Orders Psychiatric Examination of Suspect

A judge interrupted the trial of Joseph Grosso and ordered a psychiatric examination of the distraught defendant Thursday, one day after Grosso blamed a murder attempt on the underboss of a Los Angeles organized crime family.

Acquaintances of Grosso in Orange County Jail, where he is being held, said he was unable to sleep and was extremely agitated after testifying Wednesday that Michael Anthony Rizzitello Jr., reputed underboss of the Milano organized crime family, shot a topless bar owner three times in an attempt to kill him.

Orange County Superior Court Judge John L. Flynn ordered prosecutors and defense attorneys not to discuss the case.

Rizzitello is a co-defendant with Grosso on charges of attempted murder in the 1987 shooting of William Carroll, a financier associated with the Mustang Club, a now-defunct topless bar in Santa Ana. Grosso testified Wednesday that Rizzitello, who will be tried separately, shot Carroll three times in the back of the head. Carroll was found bleeding and near death in the parking lot of the Orange County Performing Arts Center in Costa Mesa.

Carroll survived the attack, but was blinded. Carroll earlier testified that Rizzitello shot him.

After an in-chambers hearing Thursday which lasted more than an hour, Flynn interrupted the trial and Grosso’s testimony, telling jurors to return Monday.

On Wednesday, Grosso told jurors that he drove the car in which Carroll was shot, but said he was surprised by the shooting, and denied prosecution claims that he was involved.

Grosso also denied the prosecutors’ contention that Rizzitello wanted to gain control of the lucrative Mustang topless bar on Harbor Boulevard. Rizzitello, 62, is scheduled to go on trial next month in the Carroll shooting. Rizzitello has a long history of fraud and racketeering convictions.

Grosso’s acquaintances in the Orange County Jail said Thursday that he is worried the Milano crime family will be angry with him for “giving up” Rizzitello.

Grosso’s best friend, “Big George” Yudzevich, who also worked at the Mustang, was shot to death last year in Irvine. Authorities say it’s possible his death was ordered because he testified before an East Coast grand jury about a New York crime family’s activities.

“Joey (Grosso) is scared all right,” one acquaintance said. “He knows what happened to Big George.”

Whether Grosso will resume the witness stand Monday is still unknown.

On Wednesday, Grosso also suggested in testimony that Carroll was responsible for the unsolved murders of racing entrepreneur Mickey Thompson and his wife Trudi last year.

Grosso testified that he once heard Carroll ask Yudzevich to commit a murder, but Yudzevich refused. Then, Grosso told the jurors, Carroll asked Yudzevich if he would pick up somebody on a bicycle who would be committing a murder for him. “It was a race-car driver. Mickey Thompson,” Grosso said.

But on cross-examination, Grosso said he only deduced that Carroll was talking about Mickey Thompson in jail after reading newspapers stories that Thompson and his wife had been shot by gunmen who rode away on bicycles. On cross-examination, Grosso explained that Carroll never said anything about a race-car driver.

Law enforcement officials were skeptical of Grosso’s accusations, and said that Carroll is not a suspect in the Thompson murders. One official said that Grosso’s claims about Carroll were made to law enforcement officials long before his trial began.