Chicago – Calling himself “noble,” community activist Derrick Mosley can be heard in a secretly recorded phone call eagerly pleading why he deserves $20,000 for not publicizing a sexual videotape involving a baseball star’s wife.

“I don’t think your job gets more serious than this,” Mosley lectured baseball player Gary Sheffield’s agent, Rufus Williams, in a Nov. 9 phone call. “But when you consider the noble thing I’ve done (by not publicizing it), I think I can live with it. And I think it’s actually worth more.”

The conversation, one of several recorded by the FBI, was played Thursday as Mosley, 38, appeared in federal court on charges of wire fraud and communicating a threat across state lines. Prosecutors say Mosley tried to extort money from New York Yankees’ star Sheffield and his wife.

Sheffield was not named in court papers, but on Tuesday he revealed that he and his gospel-singing wife, DeLeon Richards, were targeted in the alleged plot. And R&B star R. Kelly has since been identified as the musician supposedly on the tape.

Mosley is accused of first calling Williams on Nov. 3 saying he received two videotapes anonymously in the mail, with images of Richards having sex. Mosley suggested he counsel Richards — who he said needed to atone for her actions — and that he get a fee. In the recorded conversation, Mosley scoffed when Williams offered $1,000 for the tapes and suggested $20,000 instead.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Morton Denlow ruled Thursday there was enough evidence for the case to move forward. Mosley will be detained pending a detention hearing. His attorney, Luis Galvan, described Mosley as a gospel singer who loves the limelight and has made and sold CDs. His “negotiations” with Williams were nothing more than an “inartful” and “unskilled attempt” to get closer to a celebrity, Galvan said.

He called his client a “poor man’s Jesse Jackson,” a community activist with good intentions who would never have gone public with the videotape.

Pointing to sex tapes on the Internet of Paris Hilton and Pamela Anderson, Galvan suggested Mosley could have demanded “millions of dollars” for the tape if he truly intended to extort.

But Assistant U.S. Attorney Virginia Kendall painted a different picture. She said Mosley was manipulative and suggested payment for counseling he never intended to perform. Kendall said Mosley, self-employed, needed a “quick fix” of income. Kendall said Mosley has been living rent-free with another person for three years.

Mosley earns $500 a month in CD sales, and just started his own business called “Quality Behavior Care” for which he recently received a $35,000 business grant, according to his financial affidavit.

Kendall still raised questions over whether the videotapes really exist, even though Galvan insisted they do. Kendall said videotapes seized in Mosley’s home still had to be reviewed.