The NE makes up their own stories then offers money if you agree to sign a contract validating their stories. I know for a fact it happened in the Michael Jackson case.Fast-forward to December 1993. The National Enquirer, desperate to
get a scoop that Jackson has abused children, heard that the Newt kids
once spent time with Jackson.
The tabloid offered the Newts' father, Ronald Newt Sr., $200,000 to say that something happened between his kids and Jackson.
Newt, a San Francisco "character" and filmmaker whose past includes pimping and jail time, considered the offer.
A contract was drawn up, signed by Enquirer editor David Perel. Enquirer reporter Jim Mitteager, who is also now deceased, met with Newt and his son at the Marriott hotel in downtown San Francisco.
It seemed that all systems were go. But the Newts declined the offer at the last minute.
Ron Newt Sr., to whom $200,000 would have seemed like the
world on a silver platter, wrote "No good ucker" where his signature
was supposed to go. The reason: Nothing ever happened between Jackson
and the Newt boys.
Indeed, no kids, no matter how much money
was dangled by the tabloids, ever showed up to trade stories of Jackson
malfeasance for big lumps of cash after the first scandal broke in
1993.
"Maybe there aren't any other kids," a current Enquirer editor conceded.
I met Bobby Newt yesterday near the office where he works as a mortgage broker in suburban Los Angeles.
Just as his dad promised me a few days earlier, he's a good-looking kid. He's half black and half Chinese.
Robert and his twin brother were likely very cute kids. They
have the same features as other boys advertised as alleged Neverland
"victims." But all Bobby Newt remembers of his encounter with Jackson is
good times.
And all he remembers about the man from The National Enquirer is that he wanted Bobby, then 18, to lie.
"He said, 'Say he grabbed you on the butt. Say he grabbed you
and touched you in any kind of way,'" Newt said. "He told us he took all
these people down. Now he was going to take Michael down. That he would
really destroy him. He told us he took all these other famous people
down. All the major people that had scandals against them. He said, 'We
take these people down. That's what we do.'"
Prior to Bobby's meeting with Mitteager, Bobby's father met
with him and brought along an intermediary, San Francisco politician,
businessman and fellow jailbird Charlie Walker.
Walker is infamous in San Francisco circles for being "hooked up" to anything interesting cooking on the West Coast.
"My dad said these dudes are offering this money to take
Michael Jackson down. And the guy [Mitteager] said, 'Say he touched you.
All you have to do is say it. But you might have to take the stand. You
might have to go on 'Oprah' in front of all these people. You have to
be prepared for this thing. Just say it. And we'll give you money,'"
Newt said.
Two pieces of evidence confirm the Newts' story. One is the
actual contract proffered by the Enquirer and signed by Perel, who
declined to comment for this story.
The contract, written as a letter, says it's an agreement
between the tabloid and the Newts for their exclusive story regarding
"your relationship with and knowledge of Michael Jackson, and his
sexuality, your knowledge of Michael Jackson's sexual contact and
attempts at sexual contact with Robert Newt and others."
Mitteager expected them to sign, even though it was completely untrue and there was, in fact, no story.
He knew you were lying, I reminded Bobby Newt.
"Exactly! And he didn't care! He was like, 'Just say it and
we'll give you the money.' And I was like, 'He [Jackson] never touched
me!" Newt said. "He [Mitteager] was really fishing and really digging.
Think about it — most people you say it to, 'We'll give you this money,'
even [if it's not true]. And they'd take it."
Bobby Newt recalled more details of the 30-minute meeting with The National Enquirer's reporter:
"He was trying to coach me — if I decided to take the money,
what would happen. He said 'You know, it's going to be a huge scandal.
You'll probably have a lot of people not liking you. You're going to be
famous!' But to me, you'd be ruined. And the truth is Michael didn't do
anything even close to trying to molest us."
Ironically, the second piece of evidence also backs up the Newts' story. Unbeknownst to them, they were taped by Mitteager.
I told you last week that Mitteager did more surreptitious
taping than Richard Nixon. When he died, the tapes were left to
Hollywood investigator Paul Barresi. His dozens of hours of tapes include a conversation between Mitteager, Ron Newt Sr. and Charlie Walker.
When I read some of the transcript back to Newt the other day, he was shocked.
"I said all that," he observed, surprised to have his memory prodded some 12 years later.
Back in the mid-'80s, Ron Newt Sr. put his three sons together as a singing group much as Joseph Jackson did. He called them The Newtrons.
After much pushing, he got the attention of Joe Jackson, who
agreed to manage the group. Joe Jackson got the Newtrons a showcase at
the Roxy in West Hollywood.
Michael showed up and loved them. The result was a two-week
stay for the boys at the Encino house on Hayvenhurst Ave., where they
were supposed to work on their music.
"We would see Michael in passing. We didn't see him, maybe,
because he was working on an album. We saw him downstairs in the kitchen
and we talked to him," he said.
The Newtrons eventually got a record contract and recorded the
Jackson 5 hit "I Want You Back" at Hayvenhurst. They also spent the
night at Tito Jackson's house. But nothing about what Bobby Newt hears now about himself or others makes sense.
"I don't know what to believe. He had prime time with me and
my brother in the guest room for two weeks," he said. "And he didn't try
anything."
As a footnote to all of this: In the small world of the Los
Angeles music business, Bobby Newt recently worked with choreographer
and alleged Jackson "victim" Wade Robson on tracks for his first album, a potential hit compendium of original R&B ballads.
Jackson's former maid Blanca Francia implicated Robson in the case during Monday's testimony. Robson is not testifying for the prosecution.
"Wade is straight as they come. He's getting married. And nothing ever happened to him, either," Newt said.
He shakes his head,
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