It's been another busy year in the good old pop courts with both criminal charges and civil disputes involving the great and good of planet pop dominating the CMU headlines.
Among the headline cases was the long awaited much anticipated R Kelly trial. The R&B star had for years been facing various charges of having sex with and videoing under-aged girls, and those charges – well, those that hadn't been previously successfully tackled on points of legal technicality by Kelly's lawyers – finally reached the Chicago courts in May. The case centred on a blurry video supplied to the Chicago Sun-Times in 2002, which showed a black man and a girl participating in various sex acts. The prosecution claimed the man was Kelly with an unnamed but identified girl who, they said, could have been as young as 13 when the video was filmed. The problem was that not only did Kelly deny it was him in the tape, the girl did too, and while certain of her friends swore blind it was her in the video, and while the prosecution claimed a mole on the video man's back matched one of Kelly's body, the singer's defence were able to throw enough doubt on the tape at the heart of the case that the jury found their client not guilty.
Less successful in his legal fight against criminal charges was Ethiopian pop star Teddy Afro, despite the evidence in that case being even flakier. Afro, a mega-star in Ethiopia, was recently convicted of manslaughter in relation to an incident in the country's capital Addis Ababa back in 2006, in which a homeless man was killed in a hit-and-run accident. The singer, whose real name is Tewodros Kassahun, stood accused of running the man over and driving away without reporting the incident, as well driving without a licence. Fans of Afro, who was sentenced to six years in prison after being convicted of the hit and run crime, say the charges have been fabricated and are politically motivated - because he has released albums which were considered to be critical of Ethiopia's government, and because one of his songs became an unofficial anthem for the opposition in the country's recent, contentious elections. The main hole in the prosecution's case is the fact that an autopsy report on the victim indicates that he died the day before Afro is supposed to have killed him. But the inconsistencies in the time the homeless man was meant to have died didn't seem to worry the court too much. Which in itself is a worry, and definitely provides ammunition for those who believe there's a conspiracy here.
Elsewhere in pop courts news, DMX, or the one man challenge to US law enforcement as I like to call him, continued to keep the authorities busy. If he wasn't actually breaking the law he was evading arrest, ensuring he was rarely out of the Daily for more than a few weeks. Elsewhere from the world of hip hop, two of the big crime stories of 2007 generated more column inches as Remy Ma went down for shooting associate Makeda Barnes-Joseph in a dispute over money, while Foxy Brown, already inside for probation violation and anger management issues, asked for early release on the basis she had a hearing problem that could only be fixed by a doctor in LA (she was in jail in New York). The authorities weren't impressed with that request, and told her to find a more local medic. They did, however, release Ms Brown before her year in jail was up, allowing her to release new album 'Brooklyn's Don Diva', though, it has to be said, it didn't sell as well as expected given all the press coverage of her incarceration.
Closer to home the big case (assuming we ignore Mr Amy Winehouse, Blake Fielder-Civil, convicted for being a justice-perverting thug - though have we mentioned he's back in jail after violating the terms of his early-release?) was probably that of Boy George. A short case in the whole scheme of things, though it did result in a guilty verdict that could put the former Culture Club man in prison in the New Year. George, of course, was accused of falsely imprisoning and assaulting a male escort he met on the internet. The singer claimed he handcuffed the escort only to question him about suspicions the man had tampered with his computer on a previous encounter.
Other people of note popping into court, or at the very least their local police station, were ex-Radio 1 DJ Andy Kershaw, for continually bugging his ex-wife; hip hop mogul Suge Knight, for allegedly attacking his girlfriend (though the case was dropped); Dizzee Rascal for allegedly unleashing a baseball bat during a road rage incident; TI for various gun possession charges; and Babyshambles' Mick Whitnall and Barenaked Ladies' Steven Page (and no doubt many other rockers I've forgotten about) were in court over tedious drugs charges.
Plus, of course, the infamous Phil Spector trial returned to court for a second edition, the first trial into allegations that the legendary producer shot dead actress Lana Clarkson at his Beverly Hills home in 2003 having resulted in a mistrial. A media circus surrounded the opening of the second trial as it had throughout the first one, though as it became clear trial number two was going to be a pretty much identical re-run of number one, everyone, and I mean everyone, seemed to lose interest. We have been monitoring it though, and may just give you a little update in the New Year.
Next, Gary Glitter, who although not guilty any of new crimes, was in back in the headlines after he completed his jail sentence in Vietnam relating to underage sex charges and was promptly thrown out of the country. Despite he best efforts not to, he had to return to Britain where the media spotlight again focused on his past crimes, resulting in outrage when it was revealed the former glam rocker might be earning royalties from the use of his music in adverts, and when it was revealed one of his songs was listed as suggested listening on a GCSE music syllabus. As the media coverage continued the Cavern Club in Liverpool were forced to remove Glitter's name from their wall of fame because of local protests.
But of all the crime stories covered in CMU Daily this year, none were more shocking or tragic than the news that Oscar-winning singer and former American Idol contestant Jennifer Hudson had lost three members of her family. The singer's mother, Darnell Donerson, and brother, Jason Hudson, were found shot dead at their home on Chicago's South Side on 24 Oct, and it quickly emerged that her nephew Julian King was missing. A reward was offered for his return, but sadly, his body was found in an abandoned SUV three days later. One William Balfour, estranged husband of Julian King's mother Julia, was immediately questioned and eventually arrested and charged with the murders, and he is next due in court on 30 Dec. This case should continue into the New Year, and will no doubt receive much media attention.