R. Kelly Innocent Until ... When?

Five years ago, R&B star R. Kelly was charge with 21 counts of child pornography. His trial has yet to begin.

Janice Forest did a double take as she waited to be seated two weeks ago at the Cadillac Theatre in Chicago. It was the opening night of the musical "The Color Purple," and only Chicago's A list were on the red carpet, led by the show's producer, Oprah Winfrey. Somewhere in the procession of Windy City luminaries came R&B star R. Kelly. Kelly, wearing his Sunday-best dark suit, black and white spectator shoes and neatly braided cornrows, worked the crowd with the confidence of a man without a care in the world. Forest just stared at him, in shock. "This is the guy who ought to be in jail in my mind," says Forest, a 43-year-old customer-service rep who lives on the South Side. "How dare he show up at a play about rape like all is forgotten?"

Kelly may very well believe that's true. Despite being arrested and charged with 21 counts of child pornography in June 2002, Kelly, 41, has yet to stand trial. The Cook County prosecutor's office says that Kelly isn't likely to face a judge any time soon, despite a 26-minute videotape that allegedly shows him having sex with (and urinating on) an underage girl. A bootleg copy called "Rated R Kelly Triple XXX Vol. 1," has been a top seller on numerous porn websites and inner-city street corners for years. Yet next week, Kelly will release a new album, "Double Up." Its his third CD - since his arrest.

How did this happen? Some of the delays were caused by legitimate, if slightly bizarre, reasons, including Kelly's burst appendix and a judge who hurt himself falling off a ladder. Kelly's lawyers have maintained all along that it is not the singer in the video, despite the uncanny resemblance. "This is a cloud over his head as well," says Allan Mayer, the singer's spokesperson. "No one wants this over more than Mr. Kelly." But he's not acting like a man in a hurry to clear his name. Kelly's lawyers have always had the option of invoking the speedy trial rule that mandates the case begin in four months or be dropped. They never have. Shauna Boliker, the head of the Cook County state's attorney's Sex Crime Unite, says that the last five years have been filled with endless legal maneuvers. "His lawyers have filed 25 to 30 motions, and that's just not the norm in any case," says Boliker. "And the people who are really suffering are the victims. Those victims may be the real reason for Kelly's nonrush to judgement. People knowledgeable about the case who don't want to be identified because the trial hasn't begun, say they think Kelly and his lawyers are stalling until the young girls become adults, when they'll be less sympathetic victims - and, in the case of the girl in the video, less recognizable. (Kelly's lawyer did not return calls for comment.) MAny Kelly watchers also believe that the case hasn't moved faster because of racial factors. "If those girls had been white, he'd be in jail now," says Shakema Long, 18, a coed at Cal State. "But they were black girls, and nobody cares about us."

You'd think that the state would have a strong case. Kelly had a well-known interest in minors. In 1994, he illegally married the singer Aaliyah when she was 15 and he was 28. Kelly has reportedly been sued four times by women who claimed some type of sexual misconduct; Kelly is believed to have settled all of the cases for unspecified amounts. Some people say there were other incidents as well. "A lot o f people knew what was going on and chose to look the toehr way," says one of Kelly's former employees who admits to being one of those people. "He wasn't doing this without help."

But Kelly is too busy to take a spin on the wheels of justice. In addition to his new album, he's made guest appearances on several others, and he just wrote a tribute song, "Rise Up," for the students of Virginia Tech. (Does that note of compassion sound strange? It shouldn't. Two of Kelly best-known songs are the inspirational "I Believe I Can Fly" and the lewd "I Like the Crotch on You." Mr. Kelly is a complicated man.) The single he recorded with Snoop, "That's That #," just hit No. 1 on the R&B charts. (It's one of his profane songs.) Snoop doesn't think a cloud of suspicion should rain on anyone's career. "You're innocent until proven guilty in this country, so I can't judge him," he says. At the rate his case is going, Kelly could remain unjudged for a long, long time."

By: Allison Samuels

Taken from Newsweek (yes I typed the entire thing up)

--

Despite the obvious bias in this article, I think it's really interesting. I think a lot of topics of discussion arise.

Do you think...
- the reason why he remains unjudged a racial factor?
- his lawyer's excuses are legitimate?
- R. Kelly is innocent or guilty?
- justice is being more lenient on him because he's a celebrity?
- they are waiting for the victims to grow up so they are less sympathetic and less recognizable? (They must be REALLY young then, it's been 5 years!!!)
What do you think about...
- the 26-minute porno tape he made and the possibility that it wasn't him?
- R. Kelly marrying Aaliyah with such a great age difference?

My opinion is that they should go by the 'quick and speedy trial' rule. If they don't want to go to court, obviously they're hiding something. If he was truly innocent (which he's not), they would've done it speedily to get it over with. Why evade the judicial system for 5 whole years?

Discuss!

[edit on 10-6-2007 by Paresthesia]

I would think that there is more chance of him being shot by another astist than the legal system doing any damage to him.

If the prosecution had a solid case they would have had him by the balls (so to speak) a long long time ago. There must be some seriously dodgy evidence for them to hold back, or a lack of people willing to testify, including the victim herself.

I think there is a very high chance that people have been paid off. It's another story of people with money getting away with horrible things against humanity.

um well i havent seen the whole video just clips but it does look a lotlike him.. i dontknow he sketches me out now . and what the hell was up with the whole trapped in the closet stuff? the video wtf?

R Kelly is a freak. I remember he would go to the 24 hour fitness in sherman oaks. he was there like 4 times a week every evening. He was a prick. He would hog the stairmaster and have his bouncer stand near him and not let other paying customers use the other stairmasters because they might get too close to R Kelly. nobody liked the guy. not even girls. everybody just thought he was a jerk. The next question is why the hell would he even decide to go to a public gym unless he is that insecure and desperate for constant attention. Why can't he use his home gym which I'm sure he has.

r kelly setting the cam up


Chapelle's version in song, sped up cuz youtube is nazi and wont allow the original.



and now for some boondocks perspective, even though I feel r kelly should rot in jail forever. . .

I tend to agree with Riley.


"I see piss coming, I move."


"Didn't Jerry Lee Lewis marry a 14yr old baby?!?!"

Lysergic:

Kelly was indicted in Chicago for 21 counts of having sex with a minor, which were later reduced to soliciting a minor for child pornography, seven counts of videotaping the acts, and seven counts of producing child pornography. These charges came after viewing the tapes showed that there was no actual sexual intercourse involved. Kelly still faces 14 of the charges.

- Wikipedia

The crime wasn't just the fact that he peed on the girl. Media was paying a lot more attention to that because it was sensational and would give them good ratings, but just the fact that he videotaped himself doing something slightly sexual (urine fetish...?) with a 14 year old girl is bad and illegal.

OMG dave is great sped up! loll that was the best version of that song EVER! lol

Originally posted by Paresthesia
Lysergic:

Kelly was indicted in Chicago for 21 counts of having sex with a minor, which were later reduced to soliciting a minor for child pornography, seven counts of videotaping the acts, and seven counts of producing child pornography. These charges came after viewing the tapes showed that there was no actual sexual intercourse involved. Kelly still faces 14 of the charges.

- Wikipedia

The crime wasn't just the fact that he peed on the girl. Media was paying a lot more attention to that because it was sensational and would give them good ratings, but just the fact that he videotaped himself doing something slightly sexual (urine fetish...?) with a 14 year old girl is bad and illegal.

I never said anything good about it, infact he should rot in jail imo as i said in my post.

and let me quote Riley once more



I see piss coming I MOVE!

This probably has more to do with his wealth than anything racial. Although, it must be said that if he were convicted of this and given years in prison, the likes of Al Sharpton and Quanell X would scream with rage. I can hear it now, "Oh, Paris Hilton gets a month and a half in prison for violating her parole, but R.Kelly, a black man, gets years."

No, I think that R.Kelly is probably well protected by his god, "mammon." There are probably countless people that he has paid off to keep this from catching up with him.

Double post

[edit on 11-6-2007 by SpeakerofTruth]

Originally posted by Lysergic

Originally posted by Paresthesia
Lysergic:

Kelly was indicted in Chicago for 21 counts of having sex with a minor, which were later reduced to soliciting a minor for child pornography, seven counts of videotaping the acts, and seven counts of producing child pornography. These charges came after viewing the tapes showed that there was no actual sexual intercourse involved. Kelly still faces 14 of the charges.

- Wikipedia

The crime wasn't just the fact that he peed on the girl. Media was paying a lot more attention to that because it was sensational and would give them good ratings, but just the fact that he videotaped himself doing something slightly sexual (urine fetish...?) with a 14 year old girl is bad and illegal.

I never said anything good about it, infact he should rot in jail imo as i said in my post.

and let me quote Riley once more



I see piss coming I MOVE!

Ahaha. Yeah, but you also said you agree with Riley. But he was arguing for a different point than the truth.

I love The Boondocks. Those boys are so cute.

I agree with him on dodging urine from R Kelly.



thats about as far as that goes.

hard to defeat the logic of Riley. thats for sure. When I see piss coming....I move! But, did she not move when she saw piss coming because she felt psychologically trapped by R. Kelly's emotional abuse and manipulation of a 14 year old girl?

it's all because the guy is a celebrity. it's sad how we treat these people in such a manner. you're not above the law even if people know your name.

the evidence is there, the man is clearly guilty.

Originally posted by madnessinmysoul
it's all because the guy is a celebrity. it's sad how we treat these people in such a manner. you're not above the law even if people know your name.

Well, you are not supposed to be. However, judging by our judicial system, particularly over the last twenty years, I'd have to say that celebrities are very much above the law.