The second week of R. Kelly’s federal child-pornography trial is slated to begin Monday with further testimony from prosecution witnesses.
Jurors on Friday saw key pieces of evidence: graphic clips of three separate videos allegedly showing the R&B superstar sexually assaulting his 14-year-old goddaughter in the late 1990s. They also heard last week from a woman testifying under the pseudonym “Jane,” who said she was the girl on the videos and Kelly had sex with her “innumerable times” when she was underage.
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The trial is expected to last at least through mid-September, and jurors are likely to hear from more women who say Kelly had sexual contact with them when they were minors. Prosecutors also allege Kelly and his team took extensive measures to conceal Kelly’s misdeeds, ultimately leading to his acquittal on state child-pornography charges in 2008.
Kelly’s defense so far has not directly contested that it is Kelly on the video clips, only saying that their authenticity could not be verified and that Kelly was previously acquitted for conduct related to them. Nor has the defense given jurors an alternate version of Jane’s narrative of events related to videos. Instead, the defense lawyers are seeking to sow doubt by telling the panel Jane denied it was her on the clips for more than two decades.
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The videos are at the heart of the case against Kelly and his two co-defendants, who are accused of conspiring to pay off victims and witnesses and cover up years of alleged sexual abuse of minors by Kelly.
Kelly, 55, is charged with 13 counts of production of child pornography, conspiracy to produce child pornography and conspiracy to obstruct justice. Some of the counts carry a mandatory minimum of 10 years behind bars if convicted, while others have ranges of five to 20 years in prison. Prosecutors are also seeking a personal money forfeiture of $1.5 million from Kelly.
Also on trial are Kelly’s former business manager, Derrel 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.
Regardless of the outcome, Kelly is still facing decades in prison. In June, he was sentenced to 30 years on federal racketeering charges brought in New York. He is appealing both the jury’s verdict and the sentence in that case.
jmeisner@chicagotribune.com
mcrepeau@chicagotribune.com
