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Posts Tagged “trapped in the courtroom”

trapped in the courtroom

R. Kelly Trial Deals With Sex Tape Minutiae, Possible Mistrial?

After much discussion from witnesses regarding the possibility that the R. Kelly sex tape was a computer-generated forgery, it has now come forward that the prosecution gave the defense an exceptionally poor DVD reproduction of the original tape, which was used during its questioning of expert witness Charles Palm. While Palm claims his testimony was based on the original, high-quality tape, defense attorneys claim the jury may believe they were acting in "poor faith" when they used the prosecution's cheap copy during Palm's testimony. No one's currently asking for a mistrial (maybe they're saving this complaint for an appeal), but it's at least clear that the jury will have to be told the reason for the varying quality of the tape they saw, which may further confuse a jury that's already had to put up with some twisted shit. During deliberation, however, the jury will be given a VCR so they can watch the original sex tape, despite the defense's worry that they might break it or something. More »

A second witness in the R. Kelly trial, private investigator Nick Palladino, has claimed that prosecution witness Lisa Van Allen and her fiance Yul Brown tried to extort money from Kelly in exchange for not testifying. While they're not accused of asking outright for money, Palladino took their repeated references to a potential $300,000 book deal and "wanting to do what's best for their family," as well as requests for Palladino to tell Kelly of their situation, to mean that they wanted cash. Palladino also says he recorded the meeting, so the jury may be allowed to decide for themselves what implications Van Allen and Brown were trying to make. [Chicago Sun-Times]

trapped in the courtroom

DeRo No-Shows R. Kelly Trial, Judge Threatens To Issue Arrest Warrant

Chicago Sun-Times music writer Jim DeRogatis did not show up at a Cook County court this morning to testify in the R. Kelly trial, despite a judge ordering his appearance and questioning on what he did with the sex tape at the heart of the trial between the time he acquired it and the time he handed it over to authorities. Sources have told the Chicago Tribune—which has been all over this aspect of the story today—that DeRogatis never received the subpoena issued to him by Cook County Judge Vincent Gaughan, although the judge has insisted that he told prosecutors and defense attorneys to let DeRo and his paper-appointed lawyer, Damon Dunn, know that they had a date this morning. DeRogatis has been threatened with arrest, although his lawyers say that he's in the clear because there's an appeal sort of pending. I say "sort of" because while it was filed, Dunn and his team of lawyers apparently filed it to the wrong Chicago court. (Insert joke about times being so bad for newspapers, they have to get their legal assistance from El ads here.) More »

trapped in the courtroom

This R. Kelly Trial Update Will Not Improve Your View Of Him, Society

I guess as a music news site, we're compelled to cover the R. Kelly trial, and I did have some enthusiasm for the whole saga at the beginning, but trying to keep up with the goings on in the courtroom each day gets a little depressing. More »

trapped in the courtroom

R. Kelly May Have To Sit At Home (Or In Jail) Pretty Soon

R. Kelly appeared in Cook County Criminal Court at 9 a.m. CT to make up a hearing related to his child porn case that he missed yesterday, but that doesn't mean he will be able to live his life as he's accustomed to it! Maybe. But not only did he look ready for a courtroom epilogue to Trapped In The Closet this morning, he was safe in the knowledge that he can blame the state of Utah for his troubles. Well, at least the ones that have cropped up for him over the past 30 hours or so. More »