(AllHipHop News) R. Kelly’s lawyer has argued that several of the sexual crime charges against the singer should be dropped, because the law upon which they are based is “unconstitutional.”
Steve Greenberg, Kelly’s attorney, filed a motion in Brooklyn federal court on Monday, arguing that the 1943 New York law, which makes it a criminal offense for someone who knows they have an “infectious venereal disease” to have sex with another person, is an invasion of privacy.
Several of the charges against the disgraced singer, including sexual exploitation of minors, racketeering and transporting females across state lines for the purposes of having sex, are based on testimony from Faith Rodgers, who claims the singer gave her genital herpes without telling her he had the disease.
“This statute is facially unconstitutional. It prohibits sexual intercourse by anybody who has an STD. The definition is vast, ranging from HIV to yeast infections … It includes HPV and ‘scabies’,” Greenberg writes in his motion. “The only requirement is that the individual knows that they have the venereal disease. In other words, it prohibits two consenting adults from having sexual intercourse if either, or both, know that they have an infectious venereal disease.
“It does not require that the disease be passed on, nor does it allow the consenting adults to have sexual intercourse if the venereal disease is disclosed beforehand. It does not permit the use of a condom, or account for modern day suppression drugs.”
The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Brooklyn declined to comment on the outcome of Greenberg’s motion.
R. Kelly will be heading to trial in July for the charges in Brooklyn, while he also faces criminal charges in Chicago and Minneapolis.
