Salvatore Strazzullo, a New York City attorney known for a series of salacious cases that led local newspapers to dub him the “Nightlife Lawyer,” was found dead in his car early Saturday in Brooklyn, according to police.
The 52-year-old Manhattan resident had recently faced a series of legal battles after allegedly defrauding his own clients out of millions, using the money for his own debts and lavish lifestyle, according to Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez.
Police found him unconscious and unresponsive in his car around 3:30 a.m. Saturday, parked near the intersection of 16th and Cropsey avenues, an NYPD spokesperson told Fox News Digital.
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Milana Dravnel (left) and her attorney Salvatore Strazzullo arrive at a federal courthouse on February 15, 2008 in New York City. Dravnel was suing boxer Oscar De La Hoya for defamation over alleged photographs of him taken by Dravnel. Hoya claimed the images had been manipulated by her. They later settled the dispute. (Brad Barket/Getty Images)
Medics declared him dead at the scene, but there were no immediate signs of foul play, police said. The investigation is ongoing.
The New York Times dubbed Strazzullo the Big Apple's “nightlife lawyer” in a 2012 profile, describing some of his “after-midnight” cases in the city that never sleeps, and reporting that he had been a nightclub manager in the 1990s before becoming a lawyer.
Over the years he represented strippers, nightclub workers and celebrities involved in after-dark antics, including an ex-girlfriend of boxer Oscar De La Hoya, who claimed to have photographs of him wearing women's lingerie.
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Salvatore Strazzullo and Jodie Strazullo attend the JOGO by Pooneh launch in the Hamptons at Day & Night on June 27, 2009 in Southampton, New York. (REBOH/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images)
Milana Dravnel, a former exotic dancer, sued De La Hoya for $100 million in 2007. Fox News reported at the time that one of the images showed the boxing legend wearing a black fishnet bodysuit and black heels. In another, she was said to be wearing a “white tutu.”
De La Hoya claimed the photographs had been manipulated.
Olympic boxing champion Oscar De La Hoya is pictured in a room at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Philadelphia on September 19, 2007. (X17)
According to the New York Post, the legal battle between the two brought accusations that the former champion known as boxing's “Golden Boy” liked to be called “Goldie” while wearing women's underwear. The parties eventually settled out of court and both spoke about the incident in an HBO documentary, “The Golden Boy,” years later.
Strazzullo's firm's website was not working Tuesday. The Brooklyn native had an office in Bensonhurst, Gonzalez said.
A spokesman for the Brooklyn District Attorney's office declined to comment on Strazzullo's death Tuesday, pointing instead to previous news releases about the allegations against him.
Oscar De La Hoya and Wilfredo Rivera fight for the WBC and Lineal Welterweight titles on December 6, 1997 at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey. De La Hoya won the fight by technical knockout in the eighth round. (Focus on Sport/Getty Images)
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The late lawyer was due back in Brooklyn criminal court later this month on two separate cases involving felony charges of grand larceny and fraud in an alleged multimillion-dollar scheme that funded luxury cars, a luxury apartment in Battery Park City, fancy meals and custom suits, according to prosecutors.
He had pleaded not guilty.
