That, by the way, is not who you say it is. Not my words, ladies and gentlemen, but the words of various relatives of the girl who Illinois prosecutors say appears in the sex tape at the heart of the R Kelly trial. As you’ll remember, the r&b star’s defence lawyers dispute not only that their client is in that tape, but also that the girl who appears is the girl the prosecution claim it is – she being a girl Kelly did, indeed, know. The girl herself denies it is her, but as the defence began their case yesterday it was her family members that were wheeled into the court room to say they too were convinced the alleged victim is not the girl in the tape.
One was relative Leroy Edwards, who brought with him a photo he had taken of the girl between 1998 and 1999. While there are definite similarities between the girl in that photo and the girl in the video he claimed to not recognise the girl in the video frame presented in court.
Another relative, Shonna Edwards, who performed in a pop group with the alleged victim around about the same time as the video is claimed to have been filmed, also denied it could be the girl in the vid. She shared a hotel room with her while the group were on tour, so Kelly’s defence lawyer asked if the alleged victim had been as "fully developed" and "matured" as the girl in the video at the time it would have been filmed. "Not even close", Shonna responded.
Elsewhere in the first day of the defence’s case at the trial, Kelly’s legal rep called, erm, another of Kelly’s legal reps to the witness stand. Jason Wallace is a clerk for the Sam Adam Jr & Sr law firm, and he was called to testify in a bid to discredit the prosecution’s star witness Lisa Van Allen who claimed she had three threesomes with Kelly and the alleged victim. The defence claim Van Allen has been heavily influenced by her boyfriend Yul Brown and, they allege, she is lying in a bid to secure financial gain and leniency from prosecutors in an unrelated case involving Brown.
Wallace told the court he and a colleague had met with Van Allen and Brown at the start of the trial, and that Brown had dominated the meeting, and that he had implied there was a deal to be done – ie Van Allen’s silence could be bought. The clerk said Brown told them, "We know Lisa's name will be dragged through the mud. Kelly knows what he has to do to make this thing right".
In a busy day in the court room, Sun-Times journalist Jim DeRogatis who, as previously reported, originally handed over a copy of the infamous sex tape to police, and who has tried to avoid having to testify in the trial using various US and Illinois legal protections for journalists, finally took to the witness stand, though said very little indeed, pleading First and Fifth amendment rights to avoid answering pretty much any question he was asked.
Kelly, of course, is accused of filming himself having sex with an underage girl. He faces fifteen years in jail if found guilty. The case continues.