Rodman will be tried on alleged rape

Deepa Bharath

SANTA ANA -- A civil lawsuit accusing Dennis Rodman of raping a former

actress at his West Newport home two years ago will go to trial in

September.

Both sides failed to reach an agreement during a mandatory settlement

conference Monday morning. Rodman was not present at the Superior Court

hearing. Instead, the former NBA superstar’s attorney, John McKay,

attended.

Former actress Tina New appeared at the hearing although attorney

Stephen Tornay spoke on her behalf.

New cascaded into the limelight last year as the star witness in the

trial of Eric Bechler, the 33-year-old Newport Heights resident now in

prison for murdering wife Pegye during a boating trip off the Newport

Beach coast.

New helped investigators arrest Bechler by wearing a recording device

and getting a near-confession on tape.

She also testified during the trial and told jurors that after a night

of partying and taking the drug Ecstasy, Bechler narrated in grisly

detail how he hit his wife on the head with a dumbbell, stuffed her body

in trash bags and weighted her into the ocean.

New filed the lawsuit against Rodman in August 2000, accusing him of

drugging and raping her. She said in the lawsuit that she was taken

against her will to Rodman’s Seashore Drive home, that Rodman grabbed her

“by her hips and legs, ripped [her] clothing off and began physically

throwing her around.”

Rodman has consistently denied the alleged Aug. 20, 1999, incident

ever happened. He has also said he has never met New.

“I am going to state on the record that I don’t know Tina New,” Rodman

said in a deposition he gave to attorneys under oath in June. “I’ve never

seen this woman. . . . The only time I ever seen that girl is on TV.

That’s it.”

Rodman also said he did not know if New had ever been in his two-story

home and that nobody went upstairs without his permission. But when asked

how big his house was minutes before, he had told the attorney it was

one-story.

“Is it a one-story home?” the attorney asked.

“Yes, pretty much,” Rodman replied.

“It’s not two-story at all?”

“Honey, it’s one room, OK? That’s what you’re going to get.”

Rodman answered nearly all questions during the deposition and opted

not to take the 5th Amendment.

When asked about two other complaints filed by two different women

accusing Rodman of sexual battery and intentional infliction of emotional

distress, respectively, Rodman said he “did not recall” those

accusations.

“I think I’d remember if I would’ve went to jail for those things,

wouldn’t I?” he asked the attorney questioning him at the deposition.

No criminal charges were ever filed based on New’s complaint. Newport

Beach police had said a 10-day delay in reporting the alleged crime made

it impossible for police to collect physical evidence.

During the deposition, Rodman also said he would be open to DNA

testing. Judge David C. Velasquez, on Monday, ordered attorneys to

proceed with testing New’s clothes that are currently with the Newport

Beach Police Department.

That process, which will involve matching the DNA in New’s clothes

with Rodman’s DNA, will take at least 10 weeks, Tornay said.

New said Monday that she was appalled and angry that Rodman would not

come to a mandatory settlement conference.

“It upsets me,” she said. “He was ordered by the judge to be here. Why

is he above the law?”

New said she is not looking forward to the trauma of testifying in

another trial after the high-profile Bechler case that whipped up a media

frenzy.

“But I need to do this to defend myself as a human being,” she said.

“This is not fun for me. I’m on trial here to prove what he did to me.”

New said she has offered several times to take a lie detector test --

an offer, she said, that is still open.

Rodman’s attorney did come up with an undisclosed settlement amount

Monday -- one that New said was so minuscule that it was “insulting.”

A court-appointed arbitrator had awarded her $225,000 last July, but

Rodman rejected that decision.

A trial date has been set for Sept. 23.

* Deepa Bharath covers public safety and courts. She may be reached at

(949) 574-4226 or by e-mail at o7 deepa.bharath@latimes.comf7 .