Edwards case comes home

PITTSBORO —As it poured rain, a crowd of reporters with TV cameras, recorders and microphones waited by a door to the Chatham County courthouse.

One woman called her videographer and told him to get down there — Andrew and Cheri Young were leaving the building soon.

They’re John Edwards’ former campaign workers who claim they have a sex tape of him and Rielle Hunter, with whom he had an affair. A judge had just found the Youngs in contempt of court Friday for not turning it in to authorities.

It’s one of the Edwards-related events that have led national media to Chatham and Orange counties, which otherwise rank low on the scandal meter.

A man from inside the courthouse addressed the crowd with crucial information: wrong door.

“Other door! Side door! Move, move, move!” members of the media shouted as some jumped through renovation scaffolding and mud to get there.

And the Youngs walked out in suits accompanied by lawyers, only to be pursued with questions and cameras all the way down Hillsboro Street.

Three pairs of eyes watched through the window of Barber Shop, which has been on the street since 1963.

“That there’s Andrew Young,” said 78-year-old Chester E. Barker, who owns the place. “I seen him on Sean Hannity.”

And that’s about the biggest thing he’s seen go past his window.

The case came to the small-town courthouse because the Youngs live in Chatham County, which shares a court system with Orange County.

The court hasn’t been able to fund a scanner, so earlier this week judicial assistant Tammy Keshler said she faxed a 32-page legal document to about 30 media organizations and would have kept going if she hadn’t faxed it to a friend to get it scanned.

“Yes ma’am. Long week. Late hours,” she said.

More than 50 media organizations have the phones ringing off the hook at the courthouse in both Orange and Chatham counties.

It’s more than when former Student Body President Eve Carson was found shot to death, Keshler said.

Judge Abraham Penn Jones signed an order to regulate cameras in the courtroom. About a dozen TV cameras ultimately lined the back of the room, plus still cameras with telephoto lenses.

The attention will divert to Orange County court in Hillsborough on Wednesday, where the Youngs have to turn in the tapes by 2 p.m.

The court can at least control and prepare for a media swarm, said Capt. Mike Roberson of the Chatham County Sheriff’s Office.

“Sometimes we have someone in court who has a death threat against them,” he said. “Sometimes the media’s the easiest thing.”

But the Edwards drama is not something locals want to be associated with, Barker said as he gave a 4-year-old blond his first haircut.

“I ain’t saying nothing about it because I don’t care nothing about it. I want him to get lost, get lost.”



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