2 Live Crew Members Cited for Contempt : Music: Members of the rap group were late for their obscenity trial. The judge withheld sentencing.

Members of the controversial Miami rap group 2 Live Crew were cited for contempt of court today after all three of them showed up late for their obscenity trial.

Luther Campbell was about 30 minutes late, and Christopher Wongwon showed up after him. When Mark Ross was not in court by 10 a.m., Broward County Circuit Judge June L. Johnson issued a bench warrant for his arrest.

She then admonished Campbell and Wongwon to show up on time and cited them for contempt of court. Ross arrived about 10:30 a.m., about 90 minutes late--before police could execute the bench warrant against him--and told the judge that he had trouble organizing a car pool with some friends.

Johnson also cited him for contempt of court and told all three that their sentences for contempt will be withheld until after their trial, which has been in the jury selection phase since Monday afternoon.

The three rappers are charged with giving an obscene performance at a Hollywood, Fla., nightclub in June, when they performed songs from their album “As Nasty as They Wanna Be,” which a Broward County federal judge ruled was obscene. If convicted of the misdemeanor obscenity charge, each of the defendants faces a maximum penalty of a year in jail and a $1,000 fine.

After the contempt issue, Johnson then went back to conducting a hearing into charges Thursday by the defense that Assistant State Atty. Pedro Dijols had used one of his peremptory challenges to illegally strike a young black man from the jury pool.

Six people and three alternates must be selected to hear the case against the group. None has been selected, and Johnson has said she may sequester the jury because of pretrial publicity.

There were three blacks in the original 25 potential jurors who were being considered for jury duty in the case against the black rap group, and one had been excused for family reasons.

When Dijols challenged Vernard Kinnel, defense lawyer Bruce Rogow cited a statute that prohibits the striking of a juror solely on the basis of race and demanded a hearing.

Dijols, a black Puerto Rican, said he wanted to strike Kinnel because he had said during questioning that he was a 2 Live Crew fan.

Rogow said Kinnel, a truck driver who is in his late 20s, said he was not really a fan but that he had listened to the group on the radio.

“The intent was obvious,” Rogow said later. “He’s young, black. He knows this kind of music, and he has an earring in his ear.”