Posted on 08/08/2002 2:06:21 PM PDT by mhking
August 8, 2002 BY ABDON M. PALLASCH LEGAL AFFAIRS REPORTER
Before R&B superstar R. Kelly arrived at Cook County Criminal Court on Wednesday, a yellow school bus dropped off 40 children who donned pro-Kelly T-shirts. Adults led them in singing R. Kelly anthems "I Believe I Can Fly" and "Heaven, I Need a Hug." Why did the adults choose a field trip to cheer on Kelly, who is charged with 21 counts of child pornography? "Kids need something to reach for--they have no role models," said Janet Edmond, who helped organize the bus with the children. When Kelly, in a beige suit, red tie and neatly braided hair, stepped out of his Lexus, the kids and as many as a hundred adults also wearing T-shirts with pro-Kelly slogans cheered him on. Surrounded by Cook County sheriff's deputies, Kelly waved to his fans and walked into court. Prosecutors plunked down seven videotapes on their table, including a copy of atape that appears to show Kelly engaging in sex acts with a 14-year-old girl, the tape that triggered the charges against him. The state's Department of Children and Family Services is investigating whether the girl's father, a Kelly associate, and her mother knowingly allowed the girl to have sex with Kelly when she was 14. The tape was one of 73 pieces of evidence that prosecutors turned over to Kelly's lawyers at the five-minute hearing. Kelly's attorneys often have said they could not respond to questions about whether the man on the tape was Kelly because they had not seen the tape. The tape was sent anonymously to the Chicago Sun-Times, which turned it over to Chicago police. Other versions of the tape have turned up on street corners across America. A Kansas City man sued Kelly last month, saying he was shorted $10,000 on a $75,000 reward he was supposed to receive for recovering a stolen "performance" videotape for Kelly. Cook County Circuit Court Judge Vincent Gaughan Wednesday opened a packet from Warner Bros. Studio in Burbank, Calif., that contained a copy of "The Judge Mathis Show" in which Kelly's brother appeared. Prosecutors agreed to make a copy for Kelly's lawyers. Kelly said nothing during the hearing. Walking down the courthouse steps ahead of Kelly, his lawyers were asked what they expected to see on the tapes. "We're going to spend the weekend watching videos--we don't have to hit the porn store," attorney Sam Adam quipped. Attorney Ed Genson says it does not matter whether the man in the tape is Kelly because he says the girl in the tape is an adult. Kelly, following his attorneys and surrounded by sheriff's deputies, was once again swarmed by fans. Their T-shirts said, "We love you," "Case dismissed," "Not Guilty," "What about the priest?" or "Kill his name. Kill the fame. That's the game." The children screamed as if at a concert. They said they loved seeing Kelly wave to them. "He showed us he loved us," said Tenisha Jones, 14. "He showed he loved us like we love him," added Ken Davis, 16. "You need to stop looking at all the negative stuff and start looking at the good things R. Kelly is doing," Jones said, echoing the complaints that Edmond voiced about the media coverage of Kelly. Edmond declined to say what program, if any, she and the kids on the bus were connected to. "Various community leaders" rounded the children up, she said. At first she said, "We can get buses free from the city." Then she said the buses were donated. The Atlantic Express bus that brought Edmond and the children reportedly was chartered by a private group Wednesday. Kublai Toure of Amer-I-Can Illinois was introduced as an organizer of the children's bus. But later he said he was not involved. He brought people to support Kelly's "due process" and to try to ask Kelly to perform community outreach at the Juvenile Detention Center, where Toure counsels. A woman in regal African garb called "Queen Sister" shook her head at the adults and children in the R. Kelly T-shirts and said she hopes the children will be in school when Kelly comes back for his next court date Sept. 20. "How far will we let our children walk blindly and be manipulated?" she asked. Adults, kids serenade R. Kelly at court
He's going to jail.
He's going to jail for a very long time.
He needs to have his privates hooked up to a high voltage device of some sort and jolted eighteen or eighty times.
This story of his about not being able to see him with an underaged girl on the tape are bogus. It's obvious that it's him, and anyone with half a brain can see that this girl was underaged. It made me sick to my stomach.
I hope the judge throws him UNDER the jail.
With a big ugly guy named Rufus with no teeth, body odor and a broken bottle.
Totally surreal.
GOOD GRIEF!
Where exactly did your wife run across the tape if you don't mind me asking?
Someone where she works got ahold of it from a stand selling bootleg tapes. I'm sure that if you hunt around you can find it in most larger cities...
Not that I'm condoning that sort of thing...
So let's make THIS PIG a role model!
Unbelievable.
Shouldn't this have a "hold muh lunchbox" alert?
He should be thrown in jail simply for his part in making this butt-awful song popular.
A lot of folks are still stuck on his image from "I Believe I Can Fly."
I can't think of any realistic excuse. I'm waiting for the "Free R. Kelly" t-shirts to show up...
If you want on (or off) of my black conservative ping list, please let me know via FREEPmail. (And no, you don't have to be black to be on the list!)
Extra warning: this is a high-volume ping list.
That's it. It's official. The entire world has gone crazy. I'm holing up in my house with a lot of ammo and food.
Let's ignore the fact that R.Kelly is completely untalented. Let's ignore the fact that his music is 100% derivative "Songs to woo your b*tch by"-type crap. Let's just focus on the fact that some insane adults brought kids to cheer on someone accused of f**king children.
I have officially withdrawn from 21st-century America.
But Dude, you have sex with children!
Yes, and yes.
Yes, it's a fact, yes, it's on the tape, and yes, the tape will be shown in trial. Like I said, it was pretty difficult to watch.
The whole thing was somewhere between 45 and 60 minutes long. I had to fast forward through a fair amount of it as it was difficult to watch.
The camera angles early in the tape were questionable in terms of identifying either the age of the girl or for ascertaining the identity of the man. Further along in the tape, it becomes obvious. And if I could tell (considering that this was at least a fourth generation dub, and the degredation was evident), then I'm sure the jury, with a first or second generation dub, will be able to tell.
Image is everything.
The Deathists have never had any compunction about using children for their crusades.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.