PITTSBORO -- After a judge found Andrew Young and his wife in contempt Friday, a scrum of cameramen and reporters followed the couple from the courthouse and into the street, past the statue of a watchful Confederate perched on a stone pillar.
People stuck their heads out of storefronts as the gaggle passed.
"What's going on?" an exasperated local asked.
"Sex tape," a man replied.
Curious townsfolk and big-city muckrakers had gathered in the courthouse of this rural county for a showdown over Young's refusal to turn over a video starring one-time presidential contender John Edwards and the mother of his love child in flagrante delicto. But those expecting a tawdry tussle over the tape were disappointed when the judge heard arguments behind closed doors rather than before the nine television cameras lining the back of his courtroom.
After nearly an hour, Superior Court Judge Abraham Penn Jones emerged from his chambers to announce that Young and his wife,Cheri, must turn over the tape featuring Edwards and his mistress, Rielle Hunter.
Hunter, who has mostly been in hiding, was a no-show for the proceeding.
But Young, a former aide to Edwards, interrupted a national tell-all book tour to appear before the black-robed Jones. The judge was seated under the massive oil portrait of a white-wigged William Pitt, the Earl of Chatham, who appeared to blush at the subject matter.
The judge last month ordered the couple to hand over the tape and other recordings and photos of Edwards, Hunter and the child he fathered during an extramarital affair carried out in hotel suites from New Orleans to Des Moines.
"The court will put them under lock and key and under seal until the lawsuit is resolved," Jones said.
Jones ordered the Youngs to turn over the materials by 2 p.m. Wednesday. Until then, the Youngs are in contempt, and the judge reiterated that he could order them arrested and jailed.
The Youngs told the judge that the original tape is in a safe deposit box in Atlanta, and the FBI has acopy.
A list of 34 names
Edwards, a former North Carolina senator, hired his mistress in 2006 as a videographer during his run for the White House, paying her $100,000 from his political action committee. Federal prosecutors are investigating the spending of more than $1 million provided by political supporters that was used to help hide Hunter while pregnant.
The Youngs said other materials are being held by a lawyer in Washington, and on a laptop in Raleigh. They also agreed to return a list of 34 men's names apparently penned by Hunter and labeled "The Slut Club."
Hunter filed a motion Jan. 28 in Orange County seeking a temporary restraining order shortly before the Youngs appeared on ABC's "20/20" to discuss Edwards' and Hunter's affair. Jones sent a sheriff's deputy to the Youngs' Chapel Hill home to collect the items. After conferring with his attorney by telephone, Andrew Young politely declined to provide them, according to the deputy.
In a book released last week, Andrew Young described finding a sex tape while packing boxes in the Chatham County home where Hunter lived with his family for a time. Young had claimed paternity of the child in an attempt to hide the affair of his boss, who was seeking the Democratic nomination for president.
Hunter said in an affidavit that the "personal video recording that depicted matters of a very private and personal nature" was recorded in September 2006.
Young meets the media
After the hearing, Andrew Young told the assembled news corps that the couple never intended to sell the tape or show it publicly.
The judge declined to respond Friday to inquiries about why he heard arguments in secret. Stacie C. Guillet, the trial court coordinator for Chatham County, said Jones acted within his discretion and that either party could have objected.
Michael J. Tadych, an attorney for the N.C. Press Association, said the judge did not provide the public an opportunity to object, or even reveal what was going on until the hearing was over.
"I'm astonished that it happened this way," Tadych said. "The North Carolina Constitution guarantees that court is to be held in the open."
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Photo Gallery
Young ordered to turn over sex tape 02.05.10 (0 images)
See photos from Andrew Young's court appearance
Perhaps the most famous political mistress since Monica Lewinsky, Rielle Hunter has largely been in hiding since she became pregnant with John Edwards' child.
Hounded by paparazzi, she is reported to have traveled widely, staying at five-star resorts and in the vacation homes of wealthy political patrons and old friends.
As recently as last weekend, Hunter was in Blowing Rock at a mountain hideaway owned by retired Judge Bob Collier, aStatesville businessman chosen last month to be chairman of the N.C. Board of Transportation.
Collier, 79, said his son knows Hunter through the horse show circuit.
"She is a good friend of my son's," Collier said. "Not a romantic friend, but a platonic friend."
Collier said he had no idea where Hunter was Friday morning.
Staff writer Michael Biesecker
