MTV Dance Judge Ordered To Trial On Sex Charges

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A Los Angeles hip-hop choreographer who was a judge on MTV's "America's Best Dance Crew" has been ordered to trial on eight sex counts involving an underage girl in the 1990s.

A Superior Court judge ruled after a preliminary hearing Monday that there was enough evidence for 41-year-old Melvin Shane Sparks to stand trial on six counts of lewd acts on a child and two counts of oral copulation of a person under 16. He will be arraigned Nov. 15 at the Van Nuys courthouse.

The alleged crimes took place over a nearly three-year period ending in April 1997.

Sparks was arrested Dec. 18 at his Studio City home and he was released on $590,000 bail. Defense attorney Steve Meister says his client is innocent.

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