Girl testifies sex was forced

Erica D. Johnson

Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2003 | 9:15 a.m.

Under cross-examination by defense attorneys Monday, the teenage girl who claims Steven Newberg sexually assaulted her maintained the sex was forced.

On the third day of testimony in the trial before District Judge Michael Cherry, the 16-year-old said she did not tell anyone about the alleged rape until detectives visited her in Los Angeles more than a year later.

"I didn't tell anyone what happened because I was scared of being blamed," she testified.

Chief Deputy District Attorneys Lisa Luzaich and Doug Herndon claim Newberg raped the girl and videotaped the incident when she visited him in Las Vegas from Los Angeles during the summer of 2001. The alleged victim was 14 at the time of the incident.

Newberg faces multiple felony counts, which include sexual assault with a minor under 16, use of a minor in producing pornography and open or gross lewdness.

Deputy Public Defender Steve Immerman asked the girl if she was playful during the sex act and whether she recalled smiling and making obscene gestures at the camera.

She said she didn't remember making any gestures and that she wasn't aware she was being videotaped.

"Don't you think it would be hard for you to admit to authority figures like detectives that you played a role in this act?" Immerman asked.

"I didn't play a role," the girl responded.

Immerman also asked the alleged victim if she had been coached by prosecutors or instructed on how to dress to testify, to which she replied she had not.