Rock ‘n’ roll great Chuck Berry lost a Supreme Court appeal Monday over lawsuits charging that he secretly videotaped women who used the restroom at his restaurant in Wentzville, Mo.

The justices, without comment, rejected arguments that Berry is under attack by a conspiracy to destroy him financially--"tantamount to an economic lynching of a uniquely American cultural icon.”

Berry, 66, has been sued in Missouri state courts for allegedly making videotapes of women while they changed clothes and used the bathroom at his restaurant.

He also faces prosecutions in St. Charles County, where he lives, about three miles south of Wentzville, for alleged child abuse and marijuana use.


The child-abuse charges allege that Berry made films of nude youths under age 17.

Berry’s lawyers invoked a federal civil rights law in seeking to have the invasion-of-privacy lawsuits transferred from state to federal court.

Berry, who is black, had based his request on claims that he has been denied his civil rights because of racially motivated criminal prosecutions in St. Charles County, Mo.