DA: Assault suspect tries to buy teen girl’s silence

Jace Radke

Tuesday, Jan. 14, 2003 | 11:05 a.m.

A man charged with sexually assaulting a 14-year-old relative and videotaping the incident is now trying to keep the teen from testifying, Chief Deputy District Attorney Doug Herndon said at an evidentiary hearing Monday.

Herndon told District Judge Michael Cherry that prosecutors have recordings of phone calls made by Steven Newberg from the Clark County jail that include Newberg asking relatives to offer to pay for the victim's college education in exchange for not testifying.

"He was trying to get people in his family to contact the victim and pressure her not to come to court," Herndon said during the proceeding, which is scheduled to finish today. "He was trying to get them to offer to pay her college tuition, or to make her go away."

Herndon said that he wants the tapes admitted into evidence, but Deputy Public Defender Steve Immerman said that prosecutors have withheld the recordings until the last minute on purpose, and that they should not be allowed into evidence.

"We don't want to have to ask for a continuance of a week to go through these tapes; we're ready to go to trial now," Immerman said. "I don't know what they (the recordings) are because we got them at the 11th hour and I haven't listened to them.

"A message needs to be sent that this kind of thing won't be allowed, and that's why I'd ask that the recordings not be allowed in (as evidence)."

Herndon argued that he had highlighted a few specific areas in the tapes that would be admitted into evidence.

Cherry is expected to rule on the admission of the tapes when the hearing finishes today. Jury selection is set for today with the trial expected to begin late today or early Wednesday.

Newberg is facing charges that include kidnapping, five counts of sexual assault with a deadly weapon, two counts of using a minor in producing pornography and four counts of sexual assault of a minor.

"This is a typical example of overcharging by the district attorney's office," Immerman said. "They're trying to say consensual sex was rape."

According to court documents, Newberg's former girlfriend grew suspicious of his activities when she came across a list of women's names and numbers in his wallet. The woman told police that when she called two of the numbers, she spoke to two women who said they were sexually assaulted by a man matching Newberg's description.

The former girlfriend also provided police with a videotape she had come across in Newberg's home that depicted him having sex with an unknown woman she believed to be a prostitute.

Metro Police obtained a search warrant for Newberg's home and pickup truck and seized homemade pornographic videotapes reportedly showing dozens of women being beaten, choked and sexually assaulted by Newberg.

Detectives testified Monday that eight mini-cassettes and three VHS cassettes containing homemade pornography were among the items seized from Newberg's home. One of those tapes showed Newberg having sex with a female 14-year-old relative, Detective Dolphis Boucher said during Monday's hearing.

Immerman said that he plans to file a motion to suppress that videotape. Immerman argued during the hearing that detectives did not follow their own evidence gathering procedures and could not account for where the tape with the 14-year-old came from.

Boucher testified that it was found in Newberg's home in a briefcase that contained other homemade pornographic recordings.

Other items taken from Newberg's bedroom by police included a sword and two pairs of handcuffs. They also seized three knives from his pickup truck. A video camera with a homemade pornographic tape inside was also found in his pickup truck, police said.