Officers denied entry at Wayne Newton’s Las Vegas home

By Steve Green

Published Thursday, Feb. 25, 2010 | 11:06 a.m.

Updated Thursday, Feb. 25, 2010 | 4:24 p.m.

Clark County Sheriff’s civil process deputies were denied entrance to entertainer Wayne Newton’s Las Vegas ranch estate today after arriving to execute on a lawsuit judgment, an attorney and Metro Police said.

Moving vans accompanied by the officers were seen at the home and deputies tried to serve judgment documents about 9 a.m., but were turned away.

"Security personnel present at the residence refused to accept service of the documents, and the deputies left the area at approximately 9:40 a.m.," a Metro press release said. "The civil judgment documents will now be returned to District Court for Clark County as 'un-executed,' and no further service will be attempted pending further civil court actions."

Newton had no immediate comment on the situation.

In Clark County, the sheriff has the statutory ability to provide service of process in civil and criminal cases. The sheriff also leads the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department.

The sheriff’s process-serving officers’ duties include executing on writs of execution and attachment of wages, personal property and real estate. There are 15 officers in the Sheriff’s Civil Process Section and they report to personnel in the Clark County Detention Center, Metro said.

An attorney representing former Newton pilot Monty Ward confirmed that the sheriff’s officers today were trying to seize property to execute on a judgment that totaled $501,388 as of Jan. 27 and that is growing at a rate of $126.86 per day.

Ward won the judgment for past-due wages in January 2009 and since then has tried to garnish the wages of Newton when he performed at the MGM Grand and, currently, at the Tropicana hotel-casino.

Efforts to collect on the judgment will continue, the attorney said.

Financial problems have dogged Newton in recent years, especially since he lost the 2006 lawsuit filed by Ward.

On Feb. 9, a lawsuit was filed in Clark County District in Las Vegas by Bruton Smith, chairman and chief executive of Speedway Motorsports Inc., against Newton, his wife, Kathleen McCrone Newton, Newton company Desert Eagle LLC and a Newton Living Trust dated Dec. 19, 2001.

The suit charges Newton is delinquent on a $3.35 million loan and seeking to foreclose on Newton’s Casa de Shenandoah ranch in Las Vegas at Pecos and Sunset roads.

In a 2009 lawsuit, Newton was accused of failing to pay $32,384 for hay delivered to his Las Vegas ranch, presumably for consumption by his horses at the ranch.

In another 2009 suit, he was accused of owing GMAC $36,999 for a lease on a Cadillac.

The Cadillac suit was dropped, but the lawsuit over the hay remains pending in Clark County District Court, with Newton and his attorneys having filed no response in court to the allegations.

Most recently, officials at a Detroit-area airport in Waterford, Mich., said Newton owes the airport more than $60,000 after abandoning a $2 million plane there more than three years ago and leaving it to gather mold.