R. Kelly Sex Tape Trial: Skanks Galore

Jim DeRogatis will finally get his day on the witness stand.

The Chicago Sun-Times music critic ducked his subpoena again Tuesday. Instead of showing up in court, as Judge Vincent Gaughan had ordered, DeRogatis sent a lawyer, who argued that the R. Kelly-dissing scribe had never been formally served with papers. Attorney Damon Dunn also insisted that DeRo could claim reporter’s privilege while appealing his summons to testify.

Gaughan at first threatened to issue a warrant for DeRogatis’s arrest (he can no doubt be found at tonight’s Death Cab for Cutie concert in Millenium Park). But then he decided to give the goateed, Hawaiian-shirt wearing drummer “the benefit of the doubt,” while ordering him to appear Wednesday. Barring a last-minute stay by the Illinois Appellate Court, the Lester Bangs acolyte will testify.

DeRogatis, who turned the sex tape over to police after receiving it from an anonymous tipster, will appear “as a material witness, and not as a reporter,” Gaughan said. DeRogatis won’t have to reveal where he got the tape, but will be asked about viewing it with Stephanie “Sparkle” Edwards. He’ll also have to surrender his notes from that meeting. Gaughan, who kept pronouncing the critic’s name as “DeRagotis,” will review those notes before making them public.

The defense, which opens its case Wednesday, is planning to call another Kelly threesome partner to the stand — Adelina Prado, whose name came up during Lisa Van Allen’s testimony. Kelly’s lawyers will use Prado to make Van Allen look like an unreliable witness with a grudge against Kelly. It’s an iffy strategy. Linking Kelly to so many skanks makes the “Feelin’ On Yo Booty” crooner look … pretty skanky himself.