After 6 Years, R. Kelly Trial Begins
After a six-year delay, jury selection began today in Chicago in the child pornography trial of R&B star R. Kelly.
Kelly, 41, whose full name is Robert Kelly, is accused of having sex on videotape with a girl as young as 13, although the alleged victim, now 23, denies that she is the person shown, reports the Associated Press. (Kelly hasn’t admitted that he is shown on the tape either.) If convicted in the felony case, the Grammy-winning singer could be sentenced to 15 years in prison.
Jury selection began a little after noon today, according to the Chicago Tribune, and had concluded for the day within less than two hours. It is to resume Monday. The newspaper reports in its gavel-to-gavel coverage that the media was not allowed in the courtroom during jury selection.
A last-minute effort by defense lawyers to further delay the trial because of recent adverse publicity in the Chicago Sun-Times was unsuccessful. Although the defense argued that the newspaper’s coverage “irreparably poisoned” the jury pool, Cook County Circuit Judge Vincent Gaughan held that the trial would proceed as scheduled.
However, he did decide to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate leaks in the case, reports WBBM 780, a local radio station, on its website.
Gaughan had earlier imposed what a columnist for the suburban Chicago Daily Herald describes as a “draconian” gag order in the case.
