Jurors continue deliberating in R. Kelly federal trial

Jurors returned to the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse on Wednesday morning to continue deliberations in the trial of R. Kelly and two former associates on charges they conspired to cover up Kelly’s sexual abuse for years.

The panel was sent back at 1 p.m. Tuesday after closing arguments, and deliberated for less than four hours before being sent home without reaching a verdict.

Kelly, 55, is facing a 13-count indictment charging him with 13 counts of producing and receiving child pornography, enticing minors to engage in criminal sexual activity, and conspiracy to obstruct justice.

Also charged are former Kelly associates Derrel McDavid and Milton “June” Brown, who are accused in an alleged scheme to buy back incriminating sex tapes that had been taken from Kelly’s collection and to hide years of alleged sexual abuse.

This is the third time Kelly has been waiting on a jury to decide his fate. A federal jury in Brooklyn found him guilty of racketeering conspiracy last year after nine hours of deliberating. He was sentenced to 30 years in prison on that conviction.

And a Cook County jury in 2008 acquitted him on child pornography charges after deliberating for about 7 1/2 hours. That trial has played a significant role in Kelly’s current federal case — prosecutors have said he and his associates “scammed” that jury by pressuring the victim, his teenage goddaughter “Jane,” not to cooperate with authorities.

Before deliberations began Tuesday, Kelly’s attorney urged the jury in her closing argument to put aside any preconceived notions they may have about the singer and see “the humanity” in him when deliberating charges of child pornography and obstruction of justice.

Jennifer Bonjean began her final presentation to the jury by asking them to treat Kelly like a “John Doe,” as some of his accusers have been, not what they may have heard about him in the news or at the office.

“We are asking really the impossible of you, right? To put that all aside and decide this case based only on what was put into evidence,” Bonjean said.

Bonjean spent a lot of her nearly two-hour argument talking about Kelly’s relationship with Jane and her family, which continued far beyond her alleged abuse as a minor and was approved by her parents.

Jane’s parents lied to the grand jury about her sexual relationship with the singer because “they didn’t care,” Bonjean said. “She was 17 and they didn’t care … They condoned it.”

Bonjean also painted many of the women who accused Kelly of sexual misdeeds as liars and opportunists, particularly Lisa Van Allen, who /she/ called an extortionist and a thief.

In her rebuttal argument Tuesday, however, Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeannice Appenteng said the evidence was clear that Kelly was a serial sexual predator and that his co-defendants made the decision to help him hide it to keep his career intact and keep lining their own pockets.

“What R. Kelly wanted was to have sex with young girls,” Appenteng said. “And what the people around him wanted … they wanted to help their boss, including helping him get away with it.”

Attorneys for Brown, meanwhile, have argued that he was just a low-level employee who had no idea what his boss was really up to. And McDavid, during a marathon 14-hour testimony in his own defense, said he genuinely believed Kelly was innocent of wrongdoing.

Prosecutors in their closing arguments said McDavid’s 14-hour testimony on his own behalf was just an “incredible, after-the-fact, concocted story,” particularly his claims that he was just following the direction of Kelly’s criminal defense attorney, Edward Genson, his entertainment lawyer Gerald Margolis, and private detective Jack Palladino — all of whom are deceased.

“Do not let him hide behind the supposed words of three dead men,” Appenteng said. “The time has come. Hold him accountable.”

jmeisner@chicagotribune.com

mcrepeau@chicagotribune.com