The Daily Swarm

MTV News

The verdict is in. On the second day of deliberation, the jury in R. Kelly’s child-pornography trial has reached a decision: not guilty on all counts.

Kelly was indicted just over six years ago for videotaping himself engaged in sexual acts with a then-underage girl, his goddaughter. A copy of a videotape was delivered to the Chicago Sun-Times in February of 2002, which reporter Jim DeRogatis then handed over to the police. Kelly denied he was the man on the tape, claiming it must be a forgery. The jury agreed, after hearing testimony and evidence that still left a reasonable doubt as to the identities of both parties on the tape.

Some of that doubt came from the questionable motives of the people who came forward to ID the people on the tape, including the girl’s aunt Stephanie “Sparkle” Edwards, whom the singer’s lawyers described as bitter over a bad business deal with the singer, and former Kelly mistress Lisa Van Allen, whom defense attorneys accused of attempting to extort $300,000 from them in order not to testify. Kelly’s team said there had been a conspiracy afoot to create a fake sex tape, and these women were suspect.

Van Allen’s testimony was especially scrutinized by the jury, who, on their first day of deliberations, asked for a complete transcript of what she said under direct and cross examination.

Sun Times:

Jurors deliberated for more than three hours Thursday afternoon without reaching a verdict. At 5: 50 p.m., Gaughan called them back into his courtroom.

“We’re going to make some accomodation for you,” the judge told them. He ordered sheriff’s deputies to bring the jurors back to the courthouse at 8:30 a.m. Friday to resume deliberations.

USA Today:

Those fans are torn between giving him the benefit of the doubt and being turned off by the nature of the charges, says Cori Murray, entertainment director of Essence magazine.

“A lot of people feel he shouldn’t be judged,” Murray says. “There’s a feeling in the (African-American) community that we don’t like to air our dirty laundry, that black men in general are persecuted.”

A guilty verdict wouldn’t necessarily damage Kelly’s reputation. “An actual conviction won’t change people’s opinions,” Creekmur says. “In the court of public opinion, he’s already guilty or innocent.”

Kelly’s music output could continue at the same pace, too. “You see it a lot in hip-hop,” Creekmur says. “Somebody gets accused, and they record a ton of product so that things can keep coming out even when they’re locked up.

“R. Kelly has shown that work ethic and seems to have a Midas touch. He would probably move units even from jail.”

Sun Times:

If jurors decide that R. Kelly is guilty they will be telling the world that the alleged victim in his child pornography trial is “a whore,” Kelly’s attorney said in closing arguments at lunchtime.

Closing arguments have since wrapped up, and the jury began deliberating at 2:30 p.m.

Speaking after prosecutors had showed the jury the notorious sex tape at the center of the case one last time, defense attorney Sam Adam Jr said that the girl on the tape had accepted cash before performing a series of sex acts.

Showing the jury a studio photograph of the alleged victim on a large screen, he then told them that if they were going to find Kelly guilty of 14 counts of child pornography, “you are going to have to call (the alleged victim) 14 times individually and collectively a whore.”

Barely audible, he whispered, “My momma told me when we were kids, ‘if you ain’t got something nice to say about someone, don’t say it about her.”

He concluded his argument saying, “How are you 14 times going to call her a whore?”

Adam had earlier reasserted his claim that the man on the tape does not have a mole on his back, as Kelly does. “It comes and goes,” he said.

But, closing for the prosecution, assistant state’s attorney Robert Heilingoetter said, “We’re not saying that she’s a prostitute – we’re saying, based on the evidence that you heard in this trial that she is the victim of child pornography.”

He told the 12 jurors and three alternates that, “Today is the opportunity to hold the defendant responsible for the production of this tape,” adding, “the opportunity to hold him criminally responsible will never come again.”