(AllHipHop News) R. Kelly’s attempt to thwart a New York law concerning the spread of herpes has fallen flat.
The disgraced singer was trying to get a charge dismissed in his child sex abuse/racketeering case, which charges him with purposely giving at least two women herpes, including an underaged teen.
R. Kelly’s lawyer Steven Greenberg tried to challenge Section 2307, which has been on the books since 1943. The law makes it a crime if a person an “infectious venereal disease” has sex with another person and does not inform them.
Greenberg maintained the law was too old, and too broad to enforce, and argued that the law was unconstitutional.
Unfortunately, Judge Ann M. Donnelly did not see eye-to-eye with the singer, or his lawyer, because his motion to dismiss the charge and change the law has been denied.
Section 2307 survives rational basis review as applied to the defendant’s conduct. Public health is a legitimate state interest and rationally serves that interest by penalizing those who, like the defendant, have unprotected sex knowing they are infected with venereal disease,” Judge Donnelly ruled.
To make matters worse Judge Donnelly said the law was created for people like R. Kelly and that the law must stand because the “core concern” of the statute—to protect the public from the spread of infectious diseases.
