The Chicago Sun-Times reporter who failed to show up in court Tuesday at R. Kelly’s child pornography trial, angering the judge into saying he would consider ordering his arrest, refused Wednesday to testify, invoking the 5th amendment.
Jim DeRogatis failed to appear in court as scheduled Tuesday, prompting Cook County Judge Vincent Gaughan to tell Chicago Sun-Times lawyers that he would even consider ordering the reporter’s arrest.
Gaughan eventually issued a new order for DeRogatis to appear in court the following day. The journalist lawyers’ said his rights as a reporter would be violated if he were ordered to testify, the Associated Press reported.
Gaughan replied the music critic would not appear “as a reporter” but “as a material witness to a crime.”
DeRogatis is being sought to testify in R Kelly’s child pornography trial as the reporter who in 2002 anonymously received the sex tape allegedly showing the R&B singer engage in sexual acts with an underage girl.
DeRogatis turned it over to the police and R Kelly was subsequently charged with child pornography. He has pleaded not guilty to 14 counts of child pornography. Both Kelly, 41, and his alleged victim, now 23, deny it is them in the video.
Standing before Gaughan today in court, DeRogatis cited an Illinois “shield law” that governs reporters’ rights and the First and Fifth Amendments of the U.S. Constitution, the AP reports, refusing to answer questions.
The judge ruled that DeRogatis does not have to testify based on his Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination. DeRogatis does have to turn over his notes from interviews about the sex videotape.
Kelly’s lawyers previously said they only wanted to ask DeRogatis whether he had made a copy of the tape and then watched it with a family member of the alleged victim. Gaughan had said he would not be asked about his sources.
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