bvelliquette@heraldsun.com; 419-6632
CHAPEL HILL — An afternoon hearing in Pittsboro today in which political operative Andrew Young was ordered to appear in court to explain why he shouldn’t be held in contempt has been cancelled because of the weather.
Young, who was an assistant and confidant to presidential candidate John Edwards, has a private and personal videotape that Rielle Hunter made and other videotapes and photographs, according to a complaint filed by Hunter last Thursday. She wants them back.
Hunter filed a lawsuit and a request for a temporary restraining order last Thursday in Orange County Superior Court, and Judge Abraham Penn Jones issued the order demanding that Young turn over three videotapes and personal photographs.
Maj. Charles Blackwood of the Orange County Sheriff’s Office went to Young’s rural home to serve the papers and retrieve the items Hunter claimed belonged to her, but Young did not turn anything over to Blackwood.
On Friday afternoon, Penn issued another paper, this one ordering Young to appear in Chatham County Superior Court in Pittsboro at 2 p.m. today to explain why he shouldn’t be held in contempt of court for failing to turn over the items to Blackwood.
One of Hunter’s attorneys, Wade Barber, confirmed this morning that the hearing had been cancelled. It already had been announced that Chatham County courts would not be open today because many streets and roads in North Carolina are still covered with snow and ice from a weekend snowstorm.
The hearing had not been rescheduled as of this morning, Barber said.
