Classic Las Vegas entertainer, Wayne Newton, is not having a good week, financially speaking:
From the Las Vegas Sun:
Entertainer Wayne Newton has been sued twice this week by creditors claiming to be owed tens of thousands of dollars.
In one lawsuit, Newton is accused of failing to pay $32,384 for hay delivered to his Las Vegas ranch -- presumably for consumption by his horses at the ranch, called Casa de Shenandoah. In the other suit, he is accused of owing GMAC $36,999 for a lease on a Cadillac.
Both suits were filed in Clark County District Court.
Messages were left at Newton's office and with his attorney Thursday, but the entertainer and his representatives could not be reached for comment on the allegations.
Newton is known as a champion breeder of Arabian horses. In one of the lawsuits involving the hay, Austin Eide is suing Newton, the Wayne Newton Foundation and Debby Buck, identified as a representative for Newton or the foundation.
Eide, 19, of Logandale, grows alfalfa in the Moapa Valley north of Las Vegas and this was the first time he had done business with Newton, said his attorney Gregory Mills.
Mills said Newton's representatives had not complained about the quality of the hay and had stopped returning Eide's calls about the past-due balance.
The suit says Buck, on behalf of Newton or the foundation, contracted with Eide to provide 4,032 bales of hay at $12 per bale to be delivered to Newton's residence.
The suit says 18 shipments of hay were made to complete the $48,384 order between July and October 2008, but that Eide has received only partial payments.
Eide said he received $5,000 from the defendant corporation -- the foundation -- delivered by Buck in July 2008.
Eide said the corporation paid another $3,000 delivered by Buck in August and that Buck delivered the last payment of $8,000 in October. The last payment was in the form of a personal check signed by Newton, the lawsuit said.
Attached to the suit is a receipt signed by Buck confirming the delivery of the 4,032 bales.
In the second lawsuit, GMAC said Newton and his company, Erin Miel Inc., in 2005 leased a 2005 Cadillac Escalade and agreed to make 48 monthly payments of $894.39.
The suit says the defendants are in default on the lease and have failed to buy or turn over the vehicle to GMAC. As of April 8, the balance owed was $36,999, the suit said.
A third lawsuit involving Newton is pending in federal court in Las Vegas. In that suit, former Newton pilot Monty Ward obtained a judgment against Newton for $455,250 for past-due wages.
Erin Miel Inc., the company that arranges Newton's performances and pays his fellow performers and staff, intervened in that case in May complaining that Ward is trying to execute a judgment for funds belonging to it and that are now impounded by the court.
A garnishment served on the MGM Grand hotel-casino in Las Vegas, where Newton sometimes performs, resulted in $91,000 being withheld from Erin Miel Inc. for performances in March and April, Erin Miel said in its court filing.
"Monty Ward's service of a writ of garnishment served on MGM Grand is causing Erin Miel Inc. to be unable to pay the salaries of over a dozen musicians and staff," Erin Miel Inc. complained. "It is interfering with Erin Miel Inc.'s ability to pay ongoing costs and obligations."
Erin Miel Inc. said it employs Newton at a salary of $2,872 per week and has been garnishing 25 percent of his wages to pay the Ward judgment -- except for weeks when Newton did not receive a paycheck.
It argued Newton and another Newton company, Desert Eagle LLC, are subject to the pilot's judgment -- but that Erin Miel Inc. is not and that Erin Miel should receive the money from the MGM Grand that the court is holding pending resolution of the case.