Newton Jury Ends 2nd Day Without Verdict

Jurors completed a second day of deliberations without a verdict Thursday in the federal civil trial of singer Wayne Newton’s defamation suit claiming that a series of 1980-81 NBC news reports wrongly linked him to organized crime.

The jurors, who will resume deliberations this morning, viewed a two-hour videotape of Newton’s 1980 appearance before Nevada gaming authorities considering him for a license to own 50% of the Aladdin Hotel. The jurors also viewed story boards from the NBC news reports.

Visiting U.S. District Judge Myron Crocker, signaling that he expected the jury deliberations to be lengthy, flew home to Fresno, Calif., Thursday.

The panel members got the case Wednesday on the 31st day of the trial and deliberated three hours before recessing.

After about an hour into their initial meeting, the jury asked for and was allowed to view the three 1980-81 NBC “Nightly News” reports by reporter Brian Ross and producer Ira Silverman that prompted the lawsuit. The jury also requested and received a copy of Newton’s complaint and Crocker’s jury instructions.

Newton’s attorney, Morton Galane, and NBC lawyer Floyd Abrams, who have been battling in a specially built courtroom in the Cashman Field Center since Oct. 14, agreed that the six jurors and four alternates selected for the panel should all vote on the verdict.

The jury deliberations are scheduled from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday until a verdict is reached.

Newton demanded a correction from NBC after an Oct. 6, 1980, NBC “Nightly News” report titled, “Wayne Newton and the Law,” which he contended was untrue. He filed suit in mid-1981, citing the news stories and two subsequent Ross-Silverman reports.

The network stories alleged that Newton was less than candid with law enforcement officials concerning his relationship with reputed New York Gambino crime family associate Guido Penosi. Newton charged that the reports left viewers with the impression that his half-interest in the $85-million purchase of the Aladdin was financed by organized crime figures, who held a hidden interest in the resort.

Newton and others during the trial testified that it was public knowledge that the entire financing of the Aladdin came from Valley Bank of Nevada and not the mob.

Other defendants in the suit, besides Ross and Silverman, include NBC News executive producer Paul Greenberg and NBC itself. The suit seeks actual damages for loss of reputation, pain and suffering and loss of past and future earnings from all four defendants. Punitive damages are sought only from the network.