R. Kelly Sex Tape Trial: It's On!

Even before R. Kelly arrived for his child pornography trial this morning, the case was being tried on the courthouse steps.

“He had an obligation to be responsible with this girl,” argued Najee Ali, who held a sign reading “R. Kelly, World’s Greatest Pedophile.

“Is he supposed to be asking every female, ‘Can I see your ID?’” shot back Jerhonda Johnson, an 18-year-old Kelly fan from the Chicago suburbs, adding “She could have said no.”

“He could have said no,” Ali countered. “We wouldn’t be here today.” 

Then, as a news helicopter chuddered overhead, Kelly’s Cadillac Escalade pulled up to the curb. The singer’s bodyguards led him up a ramp, past a paparazzi firing squad, and through a special R. Kelly entrance.

Inside the courtroom, Kelly sat in a freshly-varnished pew, pensively gnawing his lower lip while lawyer Marc Martin made one last-ditch appeal to delay his case, on the grounds that pre-trial news stories had “poisoned” the minds of potential jurors.

This morning’s Chicago Sun-Times -- the paper that first publicized Kelly’s alleged sex tape, six years ago -- led with the headline "R. KELLY WITNESS PAID OFF." The story claimed that a woman set to testify that she joined in a threesome with Kelly and his teenage victim was given money to return a sex tape to the singer. The details were leaked from a closed hearing.

“It is our position that the jury pool has been irreparably poisoned,” Martin thundered, hamming it up for justice in a voice of outrage last heard the night Matlock was cancelled. The story, he said, "is in every box in Cook County. It will be seen by everyone. Driving into court, I heard it on the radio. Putting on my tie, I saw it on the news.”

Judge Vincent Gaughan didn’t buy it, and ordered jury selection to proceed as scheduled. Lawyers begin questioning jurors next Monday. Some courtroom observers believe the case will be won or lost in this phase, as prosecutors seek to fill the panel with citizens likely to be revulsed by a tape that allegedly shows a 6-foot-1-inch R&B star having sex with a teenage girl.

Edward McClelland

For complete trial coverage click here.