R Kelly's Aquittal

14 June 2008

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Kelly's attorney Sam Adam jr told the assembled press that during the reading of the not guilty verdicts his client kept repeating ‘Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus,".Prosecutors had argued that a video tape mailed to the Chicago Sun-Times in 2002 showed Kelly engaged in graphic sex acts with a girl as young as 13 at the time, but both Kelly, 41, and the now 23-year-old alleged victim had denied they were the ones on the tape. Neither were called to testify during the trial.

The prosecution’s main witness was a woman who said she engaged in three-way sex with Kelly and the alleged victim, the defence discredited this by showing that the man on the tape didn’t have a large mole on his back, Kelly has such a mole.The procecusions case depended on whether Kelly was the man who appears on a sexually graphic, 27-minute videotape at the centre of the case, and whether a female who also appears on it was underage.

The prosecutions case lasted seven days during which they called 22 witnesses, including several childhood friends of the alleged victim and four of her relatives who identified her as the female on the video.While in contrast the defence took just two days, calling 12 witnesses including three relatives of the alleged victim who testified they did not recognize her as the female on the tape.

Assistant Cook County State’s Attorney Shauna Boliker said she believed the female on the tape was a victim, not a prostitute as the defence had contended.Kelly won a Grammy in 1997 for "I Believe I Can Fly," and is known for such raunchy hits as "Bump N’ Grind," "Ignition," and for "Trapped in the Closet," a multipart saga about the sexual secrets of an ever-expanding cast of characters.

The jury was made up of nine men and three women; of which eight were white and four were black and included the wife of a Baptist preacher from Kelly’s Chicago-area hometown, a compliance officer for a Chicago investment firm and a man who emigrated from then-Communist Romania nearly 40 years ago.Kelly remains a popular figure in music despite his legal troubles. He comes from a background of poverty on Chicago’s South Side to before becoming a singer, songwriter and producer and it can even be said his popularity has arguably grown in recent years.

The singer has released seven hit albums, most of them selling over a million copies. He’s also had a multitude of hits and gone on tours. Kelly has a new song, "Hair Braider," out now, and is due to release a new album in July.

During the trial Kelly seemed particularly ill at ease when prosecutors played the sex tape in open court after opening arguments.

The issue of whether there was or wasn’t a fingernail-sized mole on the man’s lower back consumed many hours of testimony. A defence witness told jurors there was no mole on his back, proving it’s not Kelly, who has such a mole. But a prosecution witness displayed freeze frames of the video where a dark spot seemed to appear as the man turns to take off his pants.

Then in a bizarre development a defence expert played a segment of the tape he doctored showing two headless bodies engaging in sex. The defence said that backed their argument that Kelly’s likeness could have been computer-generated.

Cross examination was often angry and heated, often reducing witnesses to tears while giving evidence.

The main prosecution witness, Lisa Van Allen, was teary while giving evidence telling jurors that she had engaged in several three-way sexual encounters with Kelly and the alleged victim, including once on a basketball court, stating Kelly videotaped the encounters.

The defence produced several witnesses in a bid to discredit Van Allen, accusing her of trying to extort money from Kelly, at one stage during the trial Van Allen admitted she stole Kelly’s $20,000 diamond-studded watch from a hotel.

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