R. Kelly’s lawyers open his defense Wednesday, calling relatives of the alleged victim to testify that she’s not the person in the sex video at the center of the case.Another defense witness on Wednesday accused a key prosecution witness ofsoliciting $300,000 from the R&B star in exchange for her silence.So far, seven family members of the supposed victim have testified — four trial witnesses who said former that they well-known the woman, and three who said Wednesday that they did not.”It positively wasn’t her,” said Shonna Edwards, when asked Wednesday whether the underage girl seen having sex with the Grammy winner on the video was her relative.The 27-year-old Edwards said she saw the tape for the first time several days ago in a lawyer’s office, prevailing jurors that the female’s body in the tape was too urban to be her relative at that time.Prosecutors, who rested their case Monday, allege the girl was as babyish as 13 when the tape was made.Edwards also said she met Kelly often in the 1990s when she sang in an R&B music group with her relative, and she added that the man in the sex ribbon “did not appear” to be Kelly.Kelly, 41, is emotional with 14 counts of child pornography for allegedly videotape himself having sex with an underage girl. He has pleaded not guilty and faces up to 15 years in jail if convicted.Both he and the alleged victim deny they’re on the graphic, 27-minute tape.
The singer, polite in a honey-brown suit and bright flower-pattern tie, appeared attentive as he sat behind the defense table Wednesday, sometimes even nodding his head in agreement during the testimony for the defense.During questioning, prosecutors displayed two photos on a split screen — one of the female in the tape and one of the alleged victim — and asked Edwards if it was at least possible they were the matching person.Also Wednesday, the defense sought to discredit the testimony of a star examination witness, Lisa Van Allen, who told jurors Monday that she engaged in three-way sex with Kelly and the supposed victim.A law clerk for the defense team, Jason Wallace, told jurors that Van Allen’s fiance, Yul Brown, sought $300,000 from Kelly in return for a promise not to testify against him.”Lisa doesn’t encompass to testify in court if things are complete right,” Wallace quoted Brown as saying during a gathering with a Kelly legal representative in Georgia last month, according to Wallace.Van Allen was at the meeting in a hotel lobby, Wallace said, but Brown did all the speaking. But Wallace supposed Van Allen kept sleepy her head in accord.
DeRogatis read his declaration off an index card more than a dozen times in reply to questions, including to whether he once complete a copy of the sex tape. protection attorneys have said that repetition the tape would have been a crime.After DeRogatis spent 10 minutes on the stand, Judge Vincent Gaughan said that the First Amendment and other journalists human rights don’t apply in this case. But he ruled that DeRogatis doesn’t have to testify base on his Fifth alteration rights against self-incrimination.













