R. Kelly gets trial date at last: Sept. 17
COURT | Delays beset '02 child porn case involving

http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/494227,CST-NWS-rkelly02.article

August 2, 2007
BY ERIC HERMAN Staff Reporter eherman@suntimes.com

R&B star R. Kelly will appear next month before the most important audience of his career -- 12 jurors.

Judge Vincent Gaughan set a Sept. 17 date Wednesday for Kelly's long-anticipated trial on child pornography charges. Gaughan made the announcement in his courtroom after meeting with a prosecutor, Kelly's lawyers and Kelly himself for 1½ hours.

"He believes in our system of justice and is looking forward to finally having his day in court," Kelly spokesman Allan Mayer said. "He's confident that when all the facts come out, it will be clear that he is not guilty of any crime."

» Click to enlarge image
R&B star R. Kelly, shown in May, was charged with 14 counts of child pornography in 2002 after allegedly videotaping himself having sex with a 14-year-old girl.


Cook County prosecutors charged Kelly with 14 counts of child pornography in 2002 for allegedly videotaping himself having sex with a 14-year-old girl. He has pleaded not guilty.

From the outset, the case has been beset by delays. Sources in the Cook County state's attorney's office lay part of the blame at Kelly's defense team, headed by lawyer Ed Genson and now including lawyer Sam Adam, Jr. The defense has filed 25 to 30 motions in the case, a move certain to slow things down, they said.



"Any defense attorney worth his salt will tell you that there's no better friend than delay in a criminal case," said John Decker, a law professor at DePaul University, who is not involved in the case. "You're just hoping witnesses go away and recollections aren't as good."

Defense sources counter that they have not asked for any continuances, unlike the prosecution.

Other delays have been beyond either side's control. In July 2006, Gaughan fell from an 18-foot ladder at his Chicago home, suffering multiple fractures. The accident kept the judge out for six weeks. When he returned, Gaughan had to preside over the trial of accused Brown's Chicken killer Juan Luna.

In February, R. Kelly missed a court date after his appendix burst.

Now, even though Gaughan appears firm about the trial date, the case faces another potential delay: The lead prosecutor, Shauna Boliker, is expecting a baby Aug. 29. But Boliker is known for working long hours, and she said she will be ready to go.

"With both my other kids, I came back in a couple of weeks and tried [cases in front of] juries," Boliker said.

Evidence in the case is expected to include the 26-minute videotape. Each side will also present its own technical experts on videotaping, sources said. The trial is expected to last three to four weeks, including jury selection, sources said.

WOOOO HOOOO!!! HALLELUJAH!!

What a way to start the day!! Do the Happy Dance!!!



Now ... we can only hope that the wheels of justice don't roll backwards.

Justice denied ... once again!



After Five Years, R. Kelly Trial Delayed Again

Date: Tuesday, September 04, 2007
By: Associated Press

CHICAGO - (AP) R. Kelly is going to have to wait even longer for his day in court.

Five years after being charged with child pornography, the R&B star's trial had been set to start on September 17. But a Cook County judge has postponed it because the lead prosecutor had a baby recently.

Neighbors stay in on rainy days. Good neighbors save up for them. Visit statefarm.com

AP Video

Kelly was charged in 2002 and is accused of engaging in videotaped sex acts with an underage girl. Since his arrest, the case has been hit with numerous delays. A new date hasn't been set.

Kelly's attorneys haven't conceded that he is on the tape, saying his likeness may have been computer generated. They have also tried to raise doubts about the identity and age of the girl.

The case has been hit with delay after delay. Since being charged, Kelly has had six best-selling albums and three nationwide tours.

quote:

Originally posted by EbonyRose:
Justice denied ... once again!



After Five Years, R. Kelly Trial Delayed Again

Date: Tuesday, September 04, 2007
By: Associated Press

CHICAGO - (AP) R. Kelly is going to have to wait even longer for his day in court.

Five years after being charged with child pornography, the R&B star's trial had been set to start on September 17. But a Cook County judge has postponed it because the lead prosecutor had a baby recently.

Neighbors stay in on rainy days. Good neighbors save up for them. Visit statefarm.com

AP Video

Kelly was charged in 2002 and is accused of engaging in videotaped sex acts with an underage girl. Since his arrest, the case has been hit with numerous delays. A new date hasn't been set.

Kelly's attorneys haven't conceded that he is on the tape, saying his likeness may have been computer generated. They have also tried to raise doubts about the identity and age of the girl.

The case has been hit with delay after delay. Since being charged, Kelly has had six best-selling albums and three nationwide tours.

God Bless America

So is he guilty? Will he be convicted of anything?

quote:

Originally posted by MBM:
So is he guilty? Will he be convicted of anything?

I don't think so. If the girl said that she was 18 and in reality she was 14 or 15, how can it be his fault she lied. Now peeing on her, that's a different issue right there.... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sd5nSRMbANc

This message has been edited. Last edited by: RadioRaheem,

http://www.colorofchange.org/jena6/

R.Kelly Trial Postponed to Spring '08
Posted Sep 5th 2007 12:03PM by TMZ Staff
Filed under: Celebrity Justice, Music

TMZ reported yesterday that the R. Kelly trial was postponed with no new date set. Now the Chicago Sun-Times is saying that the R. Kelly case will not go to trial -- until the spring of 2008! It seems the judge needs to finish with another "chicken killer" trial that begins Feb. 13, 2008 -- leaving the Kelly trial to start sometime in the spring.

R. Kelly, 40, was accused in 2002 of 14 counts of child pornography, including making a videotape where he allegedly has sex with an underage girl. The girl in the tape, who was 14 at the time, is now 22 -- and has denied that it's her.

According to source, the new delay is because of lawyers arguing over expert witnesses who prosecutors want to call. Lawyers in both camps weren't talking about the case -- citing of a gag order. Kelly has plead not guilty.

Since it doesn't look like he's going to get any court justice ... I'd like to see him be taken through a little street justice if nothing else!!

quote:

Originally posted by EbonyRose:
Since it doesn't look like he's going to get any court justice ... I'd like to see him be taken through a little street justice if nothing else!!

This is craziness. I think that he will have his day in court...its just a matter of time!

Damn, they are treating R.Kelly as if he were white! Who is his record company paying off in the Department of so-called Justice?
5 years without a trial that's unconstitutional, isn't it?!

R. Kelly misses court date in Chicago
Associated Press


CHICAGO - R. Kelly could be facing arrest if he doesn't show up in court Thursday.

The 40-year-old singer, who is in the middle of a 45-city tour, faces child pornography charges for allegedly videotaping sex acts with a young teenage girl. He has pleaded not guilty.

Kelly missed a hearing Wednesday in Chicago after his tour bus was stopped by Utah State Police, said Kelly's attorney, Ed Genson.

Cook County prosecutors asked Judge Vincent Gaughan to issue a warrant for Kelly's arrest, saying the court had been generous in allowing Kelly to embark on his tour.

"The very least he could do is be here for his appointed court date," said Assistant State's Attorney Shauna Boliker.

The judge entered the warrant, but put it on hold until Thursday morning, when he ordered Kelly to appear in court.

Genson told the judge his client tried his best to make it on time, but first snow, then Utah authorities, delayed the tour bus on its journey from a concert date in Sacramento, Calif., to Chicago.

Police pulled the bus over and discovered its log book didn't document enough rest time for the driver. Police ordered the bus to stop for eight hours, Genson said.

Gaughan is expected to set a trial date in the case, which has been pending since 2002.

The singer won't have to rush off to a concert after court. A Minneapolis show Thursday night has been canceled. The next scheduled tour date is Friday in Chicago, according to Kelly's Web site.

Surprise, surprise...
Did you really think that his record label would let their 'golden goose' get caught up in going to jail? This R. Kelly thing is getting way too ridiculous and out of hand!

They say every dog has its day ... but apparently not.

Prosecutors Play Sex Tape in R. Kelly Trial

Date: Tuesday, May 20, 2008
By: Michael Tarm, Associated Press


CHICAGO - (AP) Prosecutors played the sex tape at the center of R. Kelly's child pornography trial in open court Tuesday, just hours after opening statements in which they accused the R&B singer of choreographing and starring in the footage with an underage girl.

The jurors, who had been taking feverish notes during opening statements, sat motionless while the video played. Their eyes were fixed on a 4-by-4-foot monitor just outside the jurors' box; in the courtroom, the lights were dimmed and blinds drawn across windows.

A grim-looking Kelly, 41, appeared to watch the entire footage intently on a small monitor on the defense table. He occasionally rocked in his chair and rested his chin in his hand.

Before playing the tape, the prosecution entered it into the record as "People's Exhibit No. 1."

The 27-minute homemade video shows a man having sex with a young female, who is naked for most of the recording except for a necklace with a cross dangling from it.

At the start of the videotape, the man hands the female money and she mouths the words, "Thank you." She is often blank-faced, impassive. The man speaks to the female in a hushed, monotone voice, and she calls him "Daddy."

Songs from the Spice Girls and Backstreet Boys blare from a radio. The female dances -- the man out of view. Back in view, he has sex with her. The man walks up to the camera to adjust it a few times, but his face is often obscured.

Prosecutors say the man in the video is Kelly, and that the female is a girl who was as young as 13 when the tape was made between Jan. 1, 1998, and Nov. 1, 2000.

The singer, who has pleaded not guilty, faces up to 15 years if convicted.

During opening statements in the long-delayed trial, Cook County prosecutor Shauna Boliker warned jurors they would have to watch a videotape depicting an "underage child performing sex acts that you have never seen before."

"A child doesn't choose to be violated and placed on a videotape, a videotape that will live on forever -- long after this child becomes an adult," Boliker said.

Defense attorneys, however, told jurors in their opening statements that Kelly is not the man on the tape and called the video's origins into question. The defense also told jurors that the girl who authorities allege is depicted on the tape is not her at all.

That's a claim that's also been made by the 23-year-old woman prosecutors say was a minor at the time of the taping. She denies she's the girl on the video.

The trial has been delayed repeatedly since the tape was mailed to the Chicago Sun-Times in 2002. The newspaper turned it over to authorities, and Kelly was indicted later that year.

Boliker repeatedly referred to the female depicted in the tape as a "child" and Kelly by his birth name of Robert Kelly. She alleged that the singer took advantage of the inherent trust children place in adults, and that the female on the tape performed acts that Kelly "commanded" her to perform.

The videotape, she said, is "child pornography that was created, staged, produced and starred in by the defendant that sits before you, Robert Kelly."

Boliker told jurors the state will not be calling the alleged victim to the stand. She did not explain why - an issue defense attorney Sam Adam Jr. was quick to exploit in his opening statements, asking jurors why prosecutors wouldn't call her as a witness.

"One answer," he said. "One: It's not her on that tape."

Adam also tried to raise questions about the tape itself, saying no one knows where it originated before it showed up at the Sun-Times. The videotape in evidence, he said, is "at best a copy of a copy of a copy" and that Kelly is not the man on the tape.

"Not a single witness can tell you that is him on the tape," Adam said. He also said the FBI could not identify the man on the tape as Kelly.

Adam did make it clear what he wanted jurors doing when they watched videotape: Looking for a mole on the man's back.

Kelly has a "significant" mole in the middle of his lower back that has been there since childhood, Adam said, even displaying a photo of Kelly's back and the dime-sized mole on courtroom monitors.

Adam said jurors wouldn't find the mole on the back of the man in the videotape.

"There is no mole on his back," Adam said. "Robert isn't that man on the tape."

Adam also told jurors the female that prosecutors claim is depicted on the video "is not a victim because she is not the girl on that tape." Instead, he suggested the woman in the video is a "professional prostitute" because the man in the video is seen handing her money.

Kelly won a Grammy in 1997 for the gospel-tinged "I Believe I Can Fly," and is also known for such songs as "Bump N' Grind," "Ignition," and "Trapped in the Closet," a multipart saga about the sexual secrets of a lively and ever-expanding cast of characters.

Also Tuesday, jurors heard from retired Chicago police investigator Dan Everett, who said he and his partner were sent to the Sun-Times building in February 2002 after a reporter received a VHS videotape the newspaper wanted to turn over to police.

Everett told jurors what he and his partner witnessed on the sex tape, but he also testified that he knew the female depicted in it was an underage girl because he had interviewed her as part of an earlier investigation.

At that point, Cook County Judge Vincent Gaughan called a sidebar outside the jury's presence and threatened to declare a mistrial because Everett had been instructed not to use the word "investigation."

Everett did not say what the previous investigation involved.

Gaughan scolded Everett, saying he'd made an egregious mistake that violated the judge's court order and said he would declare a mistrial if the word was used again in reference to the earlier interview.

Everett told the jury when it returned that he had interviewed the young female on Dec. 5, 2000, 14 months before he began investigating the videotape.

Jury selection finished last week with prosecutors and defense attorneys accusing each other of trying to stack the panel along racial lines. Eight of the seated jurors were white and four were black, and that remained the jury's racial makeup after a white female juror was replaced Tuesday morning by one of four alternates, a white male.

quote:

Originally posted by Yemaya:
Damn, they are treating R.Kelly as if he were white! Who is his record company paying off in the Department of so-called Justice?
5 years without a trial that's unconstitutional, isn't it?!

They're treating him like he's white because the victim isn't white. If that 14 year old girl looked like Dakota Fanning, R.Kelly would've been put under the jailhouse YEARS ago.