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Chuck Berry 1961

Charles E. (Chuck) Berry gets 3 years, fined $5000

St. Louis Post-Dispatch

April 15 / 1961

Charles E. (Chuck) Berry, rock'n'roll singer and former night club owner, convicted last month at a Mann Act vialation, was sentenced yesterday to three years in federal prison and fined $5000 by United States District Judge Roy W. Harper.

A jury in Judge Harpers court had found that Berry in 1959 had transported a 14-year-old Indian girl from El Paso, Texas, to St. Louis for immoral purposes.

Berry had been convicted earlier by a jury in the court of United States District Judge George H. Moore of the same offense but he appealed the conviction and won a new trial on the ground of prjudice shown by Judge Moore.

Judge More had senenced him to five years and fined hin $5000. Berry said he would appeal the latest conciction. His appeal bond was set at $10,000.

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Singer Charles E. Berry's morals conviction upheld

St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Oct 28 / 1961

The conviction of Charles E. (Chuck) Berry, rock'n'roll singer and former night club owner, for transporting a 14-year-old Indian girl from El Paso, Texas, to St. Louis for immoral purposes, was affirmed yesterday by the United States Court of Appeals.

The court ruled that a lower curt did not err in it's instructions to the jury nor by notallowing the defence to inspect grand jury testimony of the complaning witness. Berry was sentenced by United States District Judge Roy W. Harper to three years i prison and fined $5000 last april 14, after a jury found him guilty.

He previously was sentenced to serve five years in prison and fined 5000 on the same charge, but the United States Court of Appeals remanded that sentence after finding that Judge George H. Moore had tended to disparage the defendant by repeated questions about race in the jury trial.

Berry is a negro.

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