Briefly in the news

--Deepa Bharath

A Superior Court judge last week ordered Dennis Rodman to appear at a

mandatory settlement conference scheduled for Nov. 16 in connection with

a rape accusation made by actress and model Tina New.

Rodman had rejected a court-appointed arbitrator’s decision to award

New $225,000 based on her accusation that she was drugged and raped by

the former NBA star at his Newport Beach home.

New, a star witness in the high-profile trial of Eric Bechler, filed a

$10-million civil lawsuit in August 2000, stating that, on Aug. 20, 1999,

Rodman took her against her will to his West Newport home and sexually

assaulted her.

A county judge had appointed Irvine lawyer Rivers J. Morrell III as

the arbitrator in the lawsuit. Morrell’s ruling was received by the court

July 19. The decision was, however nonbinding and either party could

reject it within 10 days.

New’s attorney, Stephen Tornay, said Monday that talks are on between

him and Rodman’s attorney to settle the matter out of court.

“But we don’t have anything concrete as of yet,” he said.

If the mandatory settlement conference proves unsuccessful, the case

will go to trial probably in April, Tornay said.

New was the prime witness in the Bechler trial and her testimony

convinced an Orange County jury to convict Bechler, a Newport Beach man

accused of murdering his wife at sea.

New, who was Bechler’s former girlfriend, told the jury that after a

night of partying and doing drugs, Bechler told her that he bludgeoned

his wife and dumped her body in the ocean. New also helped detectives to

record conversations with Bechler, in which he admitted to the crime. The

surreptitious recordings led to Bechler’s arrest.