C HAPEL HILL, N.C. - An Orange County judge agreed to delay the trial over ownership questions about a videotape purportedly showing John Edwards having sex with the former campaign videographer at the center of the federal criminal charges against him.
Judge Carl Fox entered an order in Orange County Superior Court on Tuesday that delays a civil trial between Rielle Hunter, the videographer with whom Edwards had an affair and a child, and Andrew and Cheri Young. Andrew Young is a former Edwards aide who wrote a tell-all book about the former U.S. senator’s 2008 presidential campaign.
Andrew and Cheri Young, a couple with whom Hunter once lived, are in a legal tussle over ownership of the tape and other items.
The trial was set to take place this year, but Fox agreed to delay it until March, when the criminal trial against Edwards should be complete.
Edwards was charged in June with violating federal campaign finance laws by secretly obtaining and using contributions from two wealthy supporters to hide his mistress and her pregnancy from the public during his unsuccessful bid for president in 2008.
Edwards has denied breaking the law.
Though the federal criminal case and the civil case about ownership of the sex tape are about different legal issues and in different court, the two overlap some.
Edwards answered questions under oath for six hours for the lawsuit in state court.
Young is expected to be a key witness for the prosecution in the campaign finance case.
Because the cases are likely to include some of the same witnesses, Fox rescheduled the civil case for trial on March 26, 2012.
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