bvelliquette@heraldsun.com; 419-6632
HILLSBOROUGH -- Andrew and Cheri Young lied when they told the court and national television audiences that the John Edwards sex tape showed Edwards and a pregnant woman believed to be Rielle Hunter engaged in sexual activities, according to the latest affidavit filed by Hunter.
Hunter filed the affidavit Monday afternoon in Orange County Superior Court. In it she states that she's viewed a copy of the videotape that the Youngs turned over to the court. Although it is the tape she made, it does not show a pregnant woman as the Youngs claimed.
"I was not pregnant in September 2006 and the VHS copy of the video does not show a pregnant woman," the affidavit states.
The Youngs were in court again Tuesday in an attempt to purge themselves of contempt of court for failing to turn over to the court certain items that Hunter claimed were hers, including the videotape and copies of it.
"Andrew Young and Cheri Young have repeatedly stated in public and to the Court under oath that the woman in the Video is 'clearly,' 'visibly' or 'noticeably' pregnant," the affidavit states. "Those statements are false."
Hunter also said that she took photographs of herself in the mirror while she was pregnant to document her journey to motherhood, and that somehow the Youngs obtained copies of those also.
"Instead of making the decent and proper decision to simply return what belongs to me, Andrew Young and Cheri Young have forced me to seek my property through the Court and to try to preserve my privacy from further efforts by Andrew Young and Cheri Young to wrongfully take my property and my privacy from me," the affidavit stated.
She also disputes the Youngs' claim they found the sex tape in a box of trash that she left behind in a house she shared with them.
Hunter claims that she left the Youngs' house and moved into a leased house, where she had her belongings with her. When she left the house in December 2007, she believed that she would be gone for only a couple of weeks, so she packed only for that time, taking one suitcase, she claimed.
That was the time period when Hunter and the Youngs went on the run together to hide from the media after the National Enquirer broke the story that Hunter was pregnant with Edwards' child. During that time, Andrew Young, who had been an aide and confidant to Edwards, said he was the father of the baby.
Contrary to the Youngs' claim that she abandoned the property, she claims she left them at the home that was rented for her, and a month before her lease was to expire, she had a trusted friend pack her things for her. A hatbox and its contents were already missing, she claimed.
In other paperwork filed Monday, Hunter's attorneys made a chart in which they listed 15 times the Youngs made a claim in affidavits or in court that they claim turned out not to be true.
They include the Youngs' claim they didn't have a copy of the videotape at their home when in fact they did; that the original and a copy were in an Atlanta lockbox when only the original was in the box; that two keys were required to open the lockbox and that an attorney who was seeking medical attention in New York receiving medical treatment had the other key when in fact only the manager of the bank and Young had to have keys to open the box.
The Youngs did not lie in their affidavits but they did made erroneous assumptions about where the items were, said the Youngs' new attorney, Robert Elliot, after the hearing. Elliot called the discrepancies "mis-starts."
Superior Court Judge Abraham Penn Jones said that while he was disappointed in what they said in their original affidavits, the Youngs have been making progress on turning over the items that were listed in the restraining order.
