Ex-prostitute alleges assault

Prosecutors say Steven Newberg is a rapist who forced prostitutes to perform sexual acts with him as he held a weapon -- events he videotaped.

Defense attorneys say their client is a sexual deviant who paid consenting hookers to act out a "gross and disgusting" fetish.

Eight years have passed since authorities first charged Newberg with sexually assaulting two Las Vegas prostitutes. One of them, Genia Polischuk, died in 2003. The second testified against Newberg on Wednesday at the start of his District Court trial.

The 45-year-old man faces multiple felony counts, including sexual assault, kidnapping and robbery.

Prosecutors showed jurors a video of the woman who testified engaging in sex acts with Newberg.

During her tearful testimony, she said she was a crack-addicted prostitute and former Glitter Gulch dancer when she met Newberg outside the El Cid hotel in November 2001.

The former prostitute testified that she thought Newberg was interested only in photographing her, but when they arrived at a construction site, he pulled a knife and tied her hands behind her back with black plastic zip ties.

Newberg then proceeded to videotape them engaging in different sexual acts, the woman said.

As the video was played for the jury, the woman hung her head, letting her shoulder-length brown hair cover her eyes.

She said she did not wish to perform the acts that were seen in the video, but she did not fight Newberg because she feared for her life. "I had to be nice to him. It was the only way of getting out of there without getting hurt," she said.

The woman was whimpering in the video.

She said she did not report the rape to police because she was just "a crack-smoking hooker."

She was first contacted about the encounter by Newberg's ex-girlfriend, who found the woman's number in his wallet. During her testimony, the woman denied giving Newberg her phone number.

During cross-examination, defense attorneys suggested she had met with Newberg multiple times and that is how he ended up with her phone number.

She admitted during cross-examination that she has tried to forget the incident, including the fact that Newberg had a knife.

She said that after performing the sex acts, she was paid $60 by Newberg, who drove her back to the El Cid.

The woman, now a mother, said she lives in another state and has been free of drugs and alcohol for the past four years.

During opening statements, Chief Deputy District Attorney Lisa Luzaich said the witness had made many poor choices, but she did not choose to be raped.

Luzaich said the woman's lack of resistance to Newberg in the video was a defense mechanism. "She did what she was told so she could live to see the next day."

Defense attorney Dayvid Figler described the two alleged victims as desperate addicts of crack cocaine who would do anything for their next fix.

Newberg wanted to videotape bondage, humiliation and a rape fantasy to satisfy his own sexual kink, Figler said. The two prostitutes were consenting, paid participants in that fantasy, Figler said.

"This was objectification, and it may be beyond gross and disgusting, but it's not what the prosecutors are claiming it is," Figler said.

The other prostitute Newberg is charged with sexually assaulting, Polischuk, died after the charges were filed. Her body was found wrapped in a blanket near Interstate 15, about 45 miles outside of Las Vegas, in fall 2003.

The cause of her death was not determined. Polischuk died while Newberg was in custody.

Though Polischuk is dead, prosecutors still intend to use testimony she offered at a preliminary hearing for Newberg.

Polischuk was deaf. In a video, Newberg is heard making explicit and degrading comments about her, according to his arrest report.

Figler, during his opening statement, said Newberg is talking to himself to satisfy his own fantasy because Polischuk could not hear what he was saying.

Early on in the investigation, after detectives found a cache of videos at Newberg's home, Las Vegas police said he was a suspect in as many as 10 videotaped rapes.

Newberg was convicted in April 2003 of multiple sex crime felonies, including six counts of sexual assault of a victim under 16 years of age and two counts of using a minor in producing pornography.

He is serving a sentence of 33 years to life at High Desert State Prison for those felonies, according to the Nevada Department of Corrections.

Contact reporter Francis McCabe at fmccabe@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-1039.