The Daily Swarm

UPDATE: R. Kelly bombshell: Former manager and Aaliyah’s uncle Barry Hankerson was the source…Jim DeRogatis in 2002: ‘I’m sure that tape came by B.H.’

UPDATE: Jim DeRogatis will not have to testify in R. Kelly trial…

Barring a last minute appellate court ruling in his favor, Chicago Sun Times reporter and music critic Jim DeRogatis will be compelled to testify by R.Kelly’s defense team in the singer’s child pornography trial tomorrow morning. In 2002 he was anonymously given a videotape that, police say, shows R. Kelly and a girl who was 13 or 14 at the time having sex. Judge Vincent Gaughan has said that the defense has a right to hear how the tape came into DeRogatis’s possession and what he did with it. He’s also said that he may answer questions by pleading the Fifth Amendment (and thus avoiding self-incriminating himself for possessing the child porn that Kelly’s defense maintains is not real anyway), but it is highly unlikely DeRogatis will choose that option.

While the defense and judge insist that DeRogatis will not be questioned about his sources, the Sun Times’ attorney, Damon Dunn, maintains the issue at hand is the First Amendment protection of reporter’s privilege. While the tape did appear anonymously, DeRogatis, along with his Sun Times colleague Abdon Pallasch, have been reporting on Kelly’s sexual escapades with underage girls since at least 2000, and have likely interviewed dozens, if not hundreds, of sources. Like Judy Miller with Scooter Libby in the Valerie Plame case, could the questioning in front of the R. Kelly trial jury force DeRogatis to choose between breaking his promise of confidentiality to a source (or sources) or going to jail for contempt of court? Or, as in Miller’s case when she was finally released from jail after 85 days and took the stand in Libby’s trial, has DeRogatis been released from his confidentiality pledge by any one of his as-yet-unnamed sources?

So, the $64,000 question hanging over the proceedings remains: who put the allegedly incriminating videotape in DeRo’s mailbox, and why? Does DeRo know, and will he talk? Here are some possibilities:

1. The girl’s family, friends, or coaches

Bill Wyman notes over at Hitsville that 11 people have already identified Kelly and the girl on the videotape, including friends, relatives (among them her aunt, the singer Sparkle), and basketball coaches, many of whom admitted to having seen the tape long before it appeared in DeRogatis’ mailbox and was for sale on every street corner in America. Its certainly possible that any one of these people were so outraged by what they saw that they wanted to see Kelly face public humiliation.

2. The Nation of Islam

A long-standing theory whispered on the streets of Chicago is that the Nation of Islam was responsible for bringing the videotape to the Sun Times. There is no evidence to prove or dispel this rumor, but it is interesting to note the lack of outrage in the African American community over Kelly’s prosecution, as is often the case when a black celebrity is brought to trial. Could it be that this is how they chose to deal with pecuilar and foul case of black-on-black crime? Could it be that a mounting sense of frustration over the lack of movement by the Chicago Police Department inspired this bedrock community organization on the city’s South Side to take the case public?

3. Barry Hankerson, R. Kelly’s former manager

The day after the Sun Times first reported the existence of the videotape at the center of the trial, R. Kelly told Chicago’s NBC News that he believed he was the target of a blackmail attempt by a former manager:

“It’s very difficult for me because I’m innocent,” Kelly said. “It upsets me really bad because you know what I’m saying, first of all, I’m not aware of anything like that and for people, unknown people, to make those statements against me is ridiculous.”

Kelly believes vindictiveness is behind today’s story as well as his refusal to pay off a blackmailer.

“I have an ex-manager, you know, that I let go awhile ago. And ever since these people have been trying to come at me and trying to blackmail me. The reason these things are happening, I really do believe, is because of the fact that I didn’t fall back as far as blackmail is concerned. I didn’t give them any money,” Kelly said.

Kelly was certainly referring to his long-time manager, Barry Hankerson, who, in addition to steering the singer’s career for nearly a decade before quitting abruptly at the height of Kelly’s artistic output and earnings potential, will forever be remembered as the uncle of a certain young singer whose ghost haunts these sordid proceedings. The pint-sized elephant in the room at the R. Kelly trial remains the dearly departed Aaliyah, the martyred saint of R & B, whose first hit was the Kelly-penned and produced “Age Ain’t Nothin’ But a Number,” and who, it was long-ago revealed (though this fact remains unmentioned in front of the jury), got hitched to R. Kelly at the tender age of 15. At the time, Kelly was 27; having sex with Aaliyah was a felony for which he was never prosecuted. Her family had the marriage annulled and covered up so each could continue with their respective spectacular career trajectories.

Could Hankerson be responsible for the videotape’s arrival in DeRogatis’ mailbox, either as part of some sort of blackmail scheme as alleged by Kelly back in 2002, revenge over the theft of his niece’s virginity, spite for the lost millions from a business arrangement gone sour, or pure disgust over Kelly’s serial pedophilia?

Hankerson is on the witness list (his name came up in the jury selection process), but he was not called by the prosecution and there is no indication he will take the stand. Aside from Aaliyah herself coming back from the dead to testify, its hard to imagine a worse nightmare witness for Kelly’s defense. But his absence in the proceedings is an extremely curious omission, and it remains a distinct possibility that his role in the case has been an active one but a well-kept secret.

Developing tomorrow…

EARLIER:

R. Kelly Trial Exclusive: Who put a bullet through Jim DeRogatis’ front door?

R. Kelly trial: Judge rules Jim DeRogatis must testify…

R. Kelly defense wants Jim DeRogatis to testify