Police say man videotaped sex assaults on women, teen

Kim Smith

Wednesday, April 3, 2002 | 10:11 a.m.

Bail was set at $410,000 this morning for a 37-year-old Las Vegas man charged with repeatedly raping two prostitutes and a 14-year-old girl and videotaping the acts.

Chief Deputy District Attorney Doug Herndon told Justice of the Peace Ann Zimmerman that the victims are the only three who have been identified so far from dozens of videotapes seized from Steven Lee Newberg late last month.

Newberg is charged with 13 counts of sexual assault with a deadly weapon, three counts of kidnapping and one count of robbery with a deadly weapon.

Newberg, who was appointed a public defender this morning, was also charged with three counts of open or gross lewdness and two counts of using a minor under 14 in the production of pornography and one count of possession of child pornography.

Zimmerman scheduled Newberg's preliminary hearing for April 17.

According to court documents, Newberg picked the adult women up, drove them to a construction site, bound their wrists with plastic zip ties and forced them to commit various sex acts at knife point.

One of the women was sexually assaulted and robbed in 1999 and again in November 2001, police reports say.

Police found in Newberg's home a pickup and numerous videotapes that show him engaging in sex acts with the three victims and several other unidentified women, who were also bound, the documents say.

Herndon, who is prosecuting Newberg, said police believe the other women could be afraid to come forward because they may be prostitutes.

Newberg, who pleaded guilty to carrying a concealed weapon without a permit in 1999, told police that each of the women on the tapes agreed to have consensual sex with him for money.

"He stated in essence that some of the females were such good actresses that the incidents on the tapes might be construed as being criminal acts," the police report stated.