From HISTORY OF ROCK.COM:

In December 1959 following an appearance in El Paso, Berry and his band visited nearby Juarez, Mexico. There he invited a fourteen year old Apache waitress Janice Escalanti from Yuma, Arizona, to work as a hat check girl at his nightclub Berry's Club Bandstand in St. Louis. According to Berry, when he refused her advances she left in a fit of anger. On December 21 Escalanti arrest on a prostitution charge at a local hotel. This incident would lead to Berry being charged with violation of the Mann Act.. This federal statue forbid the transporting a minor across state lines for the purpose of prostitution. Berry was convicted to five years in prison and fined $5,000. An appeal was made based on racial comments made by the presiding judge and a new trial began in October, 1961. Most of the original verdict was upheld and Berry received three years at the Indiana Federal Prison and fined $10,000. Two months later he was transferred to Leavenworth Federal Prison in Kansas. He completed his sentence at the Federal Medical Center in Springfield, Missouri and was released on his birthday October 18, 1963. Chuck Berry was never the same again. He felt he had been hounded by the press and betrayed by the both sides of the legal professional.

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That's messed up.
[Edited 5/9/08 23:01pm]

Chuck might be the wrong brotha to defend in that realm... Given his filmmaking tendencies...
[Edited 5/9/08 23:02pm]

ThreadBare said:

Oops, I almost forgot about that.

Between this man,Ted Nudgent, & Jerry Lee Lewis, & Elvis, they set the mode for jailbait putang waayyyyy before R Kelly.

MsLegs said:

But R. Kelly set a new standard

(Sings) Thank heaven for little girls.....

Indeed, the originators of Wang Dang Sweet.....

I think Gary Puckett was on an R Kelly trip based his four act play lived out in songs on AM radios for the world to hear.

Lady Willpower
Young Girl
This Girl Is A Woman Now
Woman Woman

As for Mr. Berry women like Spring Thomas weren't allowed to carry out their Civil Rights work so the courts took it out on The Brown Eyed Handsome Man.


Here's Chuck and Keith discussing uh, semantics.

http://www.youtube.com/wa...EA6gzAAPfc
[Edited 5/10/08 1:44am]

And don't forget about Prince. I think Mayte was like 16 when he first met her.

vainandy said:

Anna Garcia said that Prince wouldn't sleep with her until she turned 18.....I don't think Prince would have slept with Mayte before she was 18 either.

ThreadBare said:

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This was before that incident. The whole trial was racist as hell. This took place in the 50's different times from now.

Militant said:

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Co-Sign Just the fact that he waited makes me think he has a fear of going to prison. It does not make it right for him to be talking to these chicks if they are underage but at least he is not stupid enough to sleep with them.

bboy87 said:

Hell, least they had the decency NOT to film it. And I never did hear any of them pissing though Chuck allegedly SAW them pissing.

Dance said:

He didn't tape his either. Plus Janis was 18 or 19 when Nona was born (IMDB has her birth date at January 1956 so she was actually 17, of course that don't make it better but still, lol...)
[Edited 5/10/08 15:41pm]

I'm not saying that certain things are okay or normal, but in many states 16 year olds are "legal," and there was a time when many women were married and having kids at that age.

I don't know why a grown ass man would want some girl when he has fine ass grown women of every kind coming at him like Thriller, but I'd hardly call the young women he's with victims.

The same chicks throwing themselves at college boys are messing with these dudes. It's not like these men cruise around in a white van telling these chicks that they're producers on America's Next Top Model.

And I'm not going to claim P did anything, but...come on

That's like saying,"I didn't inhale." I'm actually surprised he let that girl stay around him. I guess he was cool with Johnny.
[Edited 5/10/08 16:07pm]

Dance said:

I understand what you mean. I didn't wanna sound like I was comparing others. I mean, a lot of people have had relationships with girls under the age of consent. Like someone said, it's actually more common than people think. And yeah there was a time when "16" was legal back then so I got you with that.

Anyway, wasn't this about the injustice given to Chuck? Regardless of what happened later, they totally insulted your boy and convicted him on a white lie.

Timmy84 said:

It was a general comment.

And in 2008, 16 is legal in many states.

Dance said:

I knew 16 is still legal, lol. Just saying. Thanks for clarifying though.