Chuck Berry to be jailed

Press, 12 July 1979, Page 7

Chuck Berry to be jailed

NZPA-Reuter Los Angeles Chuck Berry, the father of rock ’n roll, has been sentenced to spend 120 days in prison and do 1000 hours of community ’ service after pleading guilty to evading Federal taxes of about SL'S2OO,OOO in 1973. U.S. District Judge Harry Pregerson suspended a threeyear jail sentence. Judge Pregerson said he hoped the finger-guitarist, who is 52, would use his talent to help the underprivileged.

Berry, who wrote such hits as “Sweet Little Sixteen,” the recent Linda Ronstadt hit, “Back in the U.5.A.,” and “Rock ’n Roll Music” in the 19505, will not go to jail immediately. The judge gave him 30 days to get his affairs in order and said he would permit him to make a 12-day European concert tour before he reported to the prison at Lompoc, California, on August 10. To comply with the com-munity-service part of the s enten ce, Berry told the

judge he hoped to launch a series of benefit concerts and programmes to deter young people from using drugs. The jail term is not Berry’s first. As an adolescent he spent three years in reform school for attempted robbery. And at the height of his fame in 1959, after a trial lasting almost two years, Berry was found guilty of offences involving girls below the age of consent. He was sentenced to two years imprisonment.