Attorneys continue sparring over prosecutor’s contact with R. Kelly witness in days before Chicago federal trial

Federal prosecutors this week shot back against accusations that the former lead prosecutor on the R. Kelly case had inappropriate contact with potential witnesses, saying much of the purportedly suspicious contact between her and a key victim had to do merely with scheduling and logistics.

And attorneys for Kelly co-defendant Derrel McDavid made a fiery response Wednesday, saying they want to call the prosecutor as a trial witness to explain herself under oath.

The filings were the latest in a wide-ranging battery of motions ahead of Kelly’s next trial. Most of the attorneys’ recent requests have yet to be resolved; jury selection begins Monday.

Kelly, 55, was indicted in July 2019 on charges of conspiring with McDavid and another associate, Milton “June” Brown, to rig his 2008 child pornography case in Cook County and hide years of alleged sexual abuse of underage girls. The trial is slated to last at least a month.

Among a flurry of other motions filed this week: Prosecutors’ request that the defense be prohibited from calling someone to testify about Kelly’s low IQ. A defense request to bar prosecutors from calling an expert witness in child sexual abuse and grooming. And an allegation by co-defendant McDavid that prosecutors have botched the chain of custody for a central videotape allegedly showing Kelly molesting his young teenage goddaughter.

McDavid’s attorneys caused a splash last week when they said the former lead prosecutor on the case, Angel Krull, had communicated with the goddaughter and Chicago journalist Jim DeRogatis in a “mysterious, clandestine, and totally inappropriate” way.

The goddaughter, who is now an adult, is expected to testify that she was the underage girl on the videos, and that she lied about it to investigators at the behest of Kelly and his associates. Krull left Chicago in 2020 to care for an ailing relative and is no longer handling the Kelly case.

Prosecutors this week released the contents of the text messages between Krull and the woman, who is identified only as Minor 1. The vast majority of them have to do with scheduling times and places to meet up and have discussions. One personal text, in which Krull tells the woman that a pregnancy photo of her is “beautiful and glowing,” does not indicate anything inappropriate, prosecutors argued.

“The photographs in question were professional photos of Minor 1 which Minor 1 shared with many people, in celebration of her joy in being an expectant mother. The reaction AUSA Krull shared reflected nothing more than sincere happiness for a person who had suffered a great deal, but who was now experiencing great personal joy,” Tuesday’s motion states. “The defendants’ efforts to attack the government personally or discourage a testifying victim should not be countenanced.”

There also is nothing inappropriate, the filing stated, about the nickname Krull used for Minor 1 in her phone: “Boss Baby.”

McDavid’s attorneys, indignant, responded that prosecutors did not provide any kind of affidavit or other evidence to support their claims that everything was aboveboard, and urged the judge to make them turn over more information about what happened.

“One can only imagine how the government would respond if a criminal defendant took on a fake name and a surreptitious email account and used it to contact potential witnesses. When he declared he did nothing wrong or that he does not intend to call the witness after the communication is over, does anyone think the government gladly would accept his affirmation?” they wrote.

Krull’s contact with DeRogatis in early 2019 was very limited, prosecutors said. She had a short phone conversation with him about possibly sharing the manuscript of his book, then had a brief email exchange. She did not respond to subsequent emails or voicemails from DeRogatis, the motion states.

Krull did use a burner email account — “piedpiper312@gmail.com” — that was attached to a pseudonym, “Demetrius Slovenski.” But she only did that upon the advice of a Homeland Security Investigations agent, who created the account, the filing stated.

Prosecutors reiterated that they are not considering DeRogatis as a government witness in the case. DeRogatis, whose reporting first brought the allegations against Kelly to light, has previously told the Tribune that he was the one to initiate contact with federal prosecutors, in an attempt to cultivate sources. That effort was unsuccessful, he said.

“Moreover, although defendants vaguely suggest that they may call DeRogatis in the defense case, they offer no explanation of the testimony he might give, or how that testimony would benefit the defense,” prosecutors’ filing states. “Given the nature of DeRogatis’ relationship to the case, it is highly unlikely that he would have any testimony beneficial to the defense.”

McDavid’s attorneys also filed a letter requesting that Krull be made available to testify as a witness in the trial — hinting heavily that if she doesn’t, jurors would be left to assume the worst about the government’s motivations.

Kelly’s Chicago trial comes on the heels of his sentencing in federal court in Brooklyn. In June, he was sentenced to a 30-year prison term for racketeering. He is appealing both the jury’s verdict and the judge’s sentence. He also faces pending cases in Cook County, though those have largely been on hold since the federal indictments came down in 2019.

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The slew of pretrial motions filed at the last minute hints that a hotblooded legal brawl is ahead. Prosecutors, defense attorneys and Judge Harry Leinenweber have only a few days to resolve them before trial begins Monday.

Some 100 prospective jurors are slated to arrive at the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse on Thursday to fill out questionnaires ahead of jury selection — an attempt to weed out ineligible or potentially biased jurors before any in-court questioning. All of the jurors coming in have already indicated that they would be able to sit for a lengthy trial.

mcrepeau@chicagotribune.com

jmeisner@chicagotribune.com