Newton Says OK to $5.3-Million Libel Award Against NBC

Saying he has achieved the public vindication that was his principal goal, entertainer Wayne Newton said Thursday that he will accept a $5.3-million libel judgment against NBC--reduced from the $19.3 million awarded by a Las Vegas jury--rather than proceed with a new trial in Los Angeles.

But Newton will not be getting any money just yet--if at all. An NBC News spokesman in New York said Thursday that the network still intends to appeal the award to the U.S. Court of Appeals. The appeals court could overturn or further reduce the award.

The case grew out of NBC network news reports by reporter Brian Ross in October, 1980. A federal court jury in Las Vegas ruled that the network defamed the singer, who contended that the news reports suggested there was organized crime backing for Newton’s purchase of the Aladdin hotel-casino. Newton later sold the Aladdin.

The Las Vegas jury awarded Newton $19.3 million in December, 1986, but the trial judge later reduced the award. Newton appealed the judge’s decision to reduce the amount and after a series of hearings was given the option of accepting the smaller award or trying the case a second time in Los Angeles federal court.

Newton had wanted to limit the issue in any new trial to the size of the award, but on Dec. 28, a federal judge in Los Angeles ruled for NBC’s contention that the “intertwining” issues of liability and damages should be determined by the same jury, meaning Newton would have to prove defamation again.

Newton had until Feb. 1 to announce his decision.

Newton, a child star who grew up to personify the Las Vegas musical showman, went before a bank of television news cameras and newspaper reporters at a press conference at the Sheraton Grande Hotel in downtown Los Angeles on Thursday. He was accompanied by Las Vegas attorney Morton Galane and Newton’s fiancee, actress Marla Heasley.

With low-key emotion, Newton denied that money was the major issue in the case. Rather, he said, it was “vindication of my name.” The size of the award brought that about, he said.

“This has been a long day coming for me,” said the entertainer. “A lot has changed (since October, 1980). President Reagan was ex-governor of California. My daughter was 3 years old. My mother was alive.”

‘Casual Acquaintance’

As he did during the 1986 trial, Newton defended himself for admittedly calling on a longtime “casual” acquaintance, crime figure Guido Penosi, to look into death threats against his daughter. This, he said, was only after local and federal law enforcement officials said they could not help him until some illegal move was made. The threats stopped shortly after he talked to Penosi, Newton has testified.

Although Penosi was linked in testimony to the Gambino crime family in New York, the judge upheld the jury’s finding of liability and said NBC news personnel, in reporting the relationship between Newton and Penosi, had knowingly created defamatory impressions about Newton.

Asked Thursday if he would go to Penosi if he had it to do again, Newton replied, “I would go to the devil himself to save my daughter’s life.” He added that he would first exhaust all resources of law enforcement.

Lawyer Galane told reporters that the $5.3-million award has grown with interest to about $6 million. If upheld on appeal, he said, it “would be higher than any award ever affirmed by any appellate court in the history of this nation.”

Galane also said recent news reports and a public opinion survey he commissioned last year showed that Newton was publicly vindicated by the trial.

NBC expressed a different view.

“NBC regrets that Mr. Newton is unwilling to have a new trial in Los Angeles. NBC will appeal the Las Vegas judgment to the Court of Appeals and expects to win.

“In his most recent order in the case, Judge (M. D.) Crocker gave Mr. Newton the choice of accepting a drastically reduced damage award or engaging in a new trial in Los Angeles. Mr. Newton’s refusal to put his case before a Los Angeles jury speaks for itself on all the issues, including whether NBC libeled Mr. Newton.”