R. Kelly Not On SexTape?
R. Kelly’s lawyers try to prove that he’s not on the sex tape…
After just two days of testimony from 12 witnesses, the defense rested in R. Kelly’s child-pornography trial, with only rebuttal and closing arguments to go.
Anyone expecting the R&B singer or the girl in question to take the stand was sorely disappointed. Compared to the explosive testimony of Stephanie “Sparkle” Edwards, and “threesome woman” Lisa Van Allen, there was no star witness for the defence.
The singer’s defence team focused on destroying the prosecution’s case by criticising the witnesses and denying that it is R Kelly on the sex tape.
The lawyers suggested that the man is a look-alike who lacks a large mole on his back that Kelly has, arguing that a mark on the man’s back comes and goes during the tape. However, they provided no leads on this man’s identity and admitted that he must have had access to R Kelly’s house.
The defence talked about conspiracy theories. Kelly’s team suggested that there are many people who would want to set Kelly up. First and foremost on the list would be former mistress Van Allen. In reference to Sparkle, lawyer Ed Genson insinuated during cross-examination that she was still bitter over being dropped from Kelly’s record label.
The defence countered the statements from relatives of the girl on the tape by finding other relatives who testified to say that it wasn’t her, this helped their argument by spreading confusion.
Defense attorney Sam Adam Jr. made a big point in his opening argument that if this terrible thing had indeed happened to this young woman, why wasn’t her mother there demanding justice? With no victim, there must be no crime, he implied.
To show that the video could’ve been fabricated the defense team’s forensic video expert made a manipulated version of the tape in which he was able to make the heads of the man and the girl on the tape disappear. Still, he conceded, there would be evidence of fakery.
The defense argues that the tape must be a fake and that the people in it must be paid actors or prostitutes. But two experts; one from the FBI, countered that the tape is authentic. For the jury, it becomes a battle of the experts. Which one do they believe?
For Kelly to go free, this jury needs to believe that there’s been an elaborate scheme to “get him”; that he’s the victim here, not the girl who is missing from the court room.
Initial reprting by Jennifer Vineyard.
