After a six-year delay, jury selection began yesterday in the child-pornography trial of R & B singer R. Kelly, who stands accused of having sex with a girl as young as 13 on videotape.
Kelly, who faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted, has pleaded not guilty. And his infamous claim of "That ain't me in the tape!" Gets more complicated as...
His lawyers had contended the jury pool was "irrevocably poisoned" by a Chicago Sun-Times article that claimed a potential witness was allegedly paid by an aide to the singer in order to get back an incriminating sex video. But Cook County Circuit Court Judge Vincent Gaughan denied their motion to again postpone the trial,
Chief among the challenges prosecutors face is that the alleged victim, now 23, says it wasn't her in the videotape ... which is the trial's centerpiece and may be shown in open court. Furthermore, Kelly's lawyers have not admitted it's Kelly who appears in the video.
Prosecutors claim the videotape was made sometime between Jan. 1, 1998, and Nov. 1, 2000, and that the girl was born in September 1984. Kelly was indicted on pornography charges June 5, 2002, after the tape surfaced. AP