Audio recordings of conversations between a community activist and the business manager for New York Yankees star Gary Sheffield and his wife reveal the activist’s attempts to blackmail the couple over a sex video supposedly involving singer R. Kelly, Chicago prosecutors said.
But Derrick Mosley’s defense attorney said the self-styled activist sincerely wanted to provide moral counsel to Sheffield’s wife, gospel singer DeLeon Richards-Sheffield.
Mosley, who describes himself as a minister, is accused of plotting to extort money from the Yankees slugger and his wife by threatening to make public video tapes of Richards-Sheffield having sex with another man. Assistant U.S. Attorney Clarence Butler said yesterday (Nov. 7) that Mosley claimed he had two videotapes that showed her and Kelly having sex before she married Sheffield.
Butler said Mosley’s concern for Richards-Sheffield was an act. “Ultimately, this defendant asked for $20,000,” Butler said. “This was just a scheme on the part of this defendant to commit extortion.”
The couple’s business manager, Rufus Williams, recorded conversations with Mosley last year after Mosley contacted him about the tape. At one point, Mosley told Williams that “anybody that wanted to be, ah, immoral … they would have flat called one of those tabloids … and see how much they could gain.”
Williams testified yesterday that Mosley told him Richards-Sheffield “needed to atone, she needed to repent.” Williams said Mosley raised the idea of being a paid consultant.
Butler also told jurors that Mosley called the Yankees media office last November to try to contact Sheffield and told a team official about the tape. Mosley then asked “how much is it worth to them,” Butler said.
Defense attorney Michael Petro said Mosley wouldn’t have been so open if he had bad intentions. “He let Rufus Williams have his home address,” Petro told jurors. “Does that sound like extortion?
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