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R. Kelly's Sex Tape Going Public
06/09/2006 3:40 PM, E! Online
Josh Grossberg
Coming soon to a courtroom near you: the R. Kelly sex tape.
A Chicago judge agreed to allow the videotape, which
prosecutors claim shows the R&B superstar having sex with a 13-year-old
girl, to be screened in open court. The footage, which has been widely
disseminated online, is the core piece of evidence in Kelly's
child-pornography case that's scheduled to go to trial this summer.
At a hearing on Thursday, Cook County Criminal Court Judge
Vincent Gaughan said the people's right to know the details that
resulted in the "Trapped in the Closet" singer being charged with 14
counts of child pornography trumps his attorney's argument that showing
the sexually explicit material could lead to Kelly not getting a fair
trial.
"This is the whole crux and linchpin of the case. If
there was no tape, we wouldn't have a case," the judge said, per the
Chicago Tribune. "I find there is not an overarching interest for
excluding the public and the press from the portion of the trial that is
the linchpin."
R. Kelly's lead attorney, Ed Genson, declined
to comment Friday on the judge's decision, as did a spokesman for the
Cook County District Attorney's Office.
In court, another
Kelly lawyer, Marc Martin, told Gaughan that airing the lewd video would
compromise the 39-year-old Grammy winner's ability to get an impartial
jury because of the hoopla that it would inevitably generate. Martin
requested that the viewing be restricted to lawyers and jurors only.
"If this tape is disseminated to the public for the trial, it's
going to be a circus. We want the jury to make decisions based on the
case, not on headlines," the lawyer argued. "We are not talking about
keeping the public out of the courtroom. We are talking about one piece
of evidence. The press does not have a right to see it. They don't have
a right to possess it."
Worried about the welfare of the
girl, who's now 21, and the embarrassment the video's unveiling is
likely to cause her, prosecutors were willing to bend when it came to
restricting the public's need to know, but not with the media.
Offering a remedy, Assistant State's Attorney Shauna Boliker
said her office specifically suggested having jurors and lawyers watch
the video with headphones and turn the monitors away from spectators in
the courtroom.
"This is for the protection of the victim," she
told Gaughan.
But after Boliker revealed that prosecutors were
not intending to have the victim testify in the trial, Gaughan ruled
otherwise.
No word yet on a trial date. Kelly has pleaded
innocent to the charges and another status hearing is scheduled for next
Thursday.
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