Testimony resumes Thursday in R. Kelly trial as case nears halfway mark

Prosecutors on Thursday will continue presenting their case against R. Kelly as the disgraced R&B star’s federal child pornography trial nears the halfway mark.

Jurors in the closely watched case have so far heard from 13 witnesses, including an alleged victim who testified last week Kelly videotaped sexual encounters with her when she was just 14, then pressured and ultimately paid off her and her family to remain silent. Clips from three of those videos were shown to the jury on Friday.

This week has been dominated by another key prosecution witness, Charles Freeman, a Kansas City merchandiser and who told the jury Kelly and his associates agreed to pay him up to a million dollars in the early 2000s to hunt down other incriminating videos before they could be made public.

The plot as described by Freeman on direct examination Tuesday spanned almost a decade, and unfolded in cities from Chicago to Kansas City and Atlanta, at Kelly’s music studio, concert venues and even the singer’s sprawling Olympia Fields mansion, where Freeman said he was told to strip naked and get in a pool to prove he wasn’t wearing a wire.

But that account came under withering scrutiny during nearly five hours of cross-examination Wednesday, with attorneys for Kelly and his co-defendants trying to paint Freeman as a liar and opportunist who has given inconsistent accounts about the conspiracy over the years.

Freeman was a key witness to the heart of the indictment alleging there was a conspiracy to cover up sexual misconduct by Kelly.

He has recounted his version of the two-decades-old events several times in recent years, including at least three under oath: Before a Cook County grand jury, in an affidavit for a federal grand jury, and now at Kelly’s trial.

All those accounts differ from each other, some in significant ways, and lawyers for both Kelly and McDavid pressed him on the discrepancies with increasing agitation. The wide-ranging inconsistencies included where Freeman first learned the whereabouts of the tape, how many tapes he took, when he learned what was on the tape and who was involved in the initial conversations about retrieving it.

Defense attorneys also delved into another intriguing twist: Freeman, who had remained silent for nearly 20 years, was initially brought to investigators’ attention in 2019 by California attorney Michael Avenatti, who has since been convicted of federal crimes of his own and sentenced to prison.

Freeman at first denied that Avenatti was with him during his Cook County grand jury appearance in February 2019, but acquiesced after Kelly’s attorney, Jennifer Bonjean, had him review a transcript showing he was in the room.

Neither side has confirmed whether Avenatti will be called as a witness in the trial.

Kelly, 55, is charged with 13 counts of production of child pornography, conspiracy to produce child pornography and conspiracy to obstruct justice.

Also on trial are McDavid and another associate, Milton “June” Brown, who, according to the indictment, schemed to buy back incriminating sex tapes that had been taken from Kelly’s collection and hide years of alleged sexual abuse of underage girls.

The trial is expected to last about four weeks. Prosecutors on Wednesday told U.S. District Judge Harry Leinenweber that they had hoped to rest their case in chief by the middle of next week, but the lengthy testimony by Freeman may have set that plan back.

jmeisner@chicagotribune.com