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Unfinished Business(continued)
LIGHT BONDAGE Kelly appears in court in June 2002. His bail was set at $750,000 (Photo: Getty Images) The accused claims to be innocent of the charges against him, which in the current suit comes in at 14 counts of child pornography. And as simplistic as that sounds, it's a large portion of an argument the prosecution must overcome in order to get a conviction. But that won't stop them from highlighting R. Kelly's seedy history. Kelly has settled three separate lawsuits concerning statutory sex-related accusations, but there's more to the story than that. Start with his marriage in 1994, at age 27, to aspiring 15-year-old singer Aaliyah Haughton, whom he also mentored and, well, "mentored." Her age was listed as 18 on the marriage certificate, but Vibe magazine obtained and published a copy of their doctored license, and the marriage was promptly annulled. The earliest known case involving Kelly was settled in 1998 and stems from an illegal relationship from 1991; another suit alleged that a relationship ended in a coerced abortion; yet another case of sex with a minor was tossed out of criminal court in Florida after a judge ruled evidence (a digital camera) was illegally obtained; and so on. Of course, a settlement could simply indicate that Kelly hoped to excise the problem(s) before they became full-fledged incidents, and he's indicated in interviews that this is where he stands. These past relationships—even that of the now-deceased Aaliyah—will likely be used by the prosecution in Kelly's current trial. 
I remember being at the sound check for an R. Kelly concert in New Orleans in the mid-90s. He finally shows up - hours late - in a stretch limo with body guards (although no one was around who was interested in bothering him), gets up on stage, opens his pants and starts choking the chicken. After being told that was not appropriate, he left in a snit and refused to return. The concert promoters were most unhappy - they'd paid him a $40,000 cash advance (if I remember the amount correctly), which he refused to pay back. He left town with the money and never did perform. There are a lot of people who can sing and write songs a lot better than R. Kelly. I have no idea why anyone would champion this guy. Posted by: zi9za9 on May 9, 2008 10:38 AM It's also disgusting that he's STILL seen hanging out around Chicago schools for young groupies. Posted by: punctiliouspig on May 10, 2008 6:15 AM He's such a loser. Why is it taking so long to punish the pedophile? Posted by: lisae76 on May 10, 2008 3:05 PM Jeez...I saw the tape 6 years ago. It was him. The girl was a baby. Clearly! The tape is sick, and if the jury could not convict him on all that evidence, then the jury was full of a bunch of idiots. I'm black and I feel like justice was not served. Fuckity Fuck Fuck. Posted by: greanbeens on June 13, 2008 3:29 PM Advertisement Post a commentYour comment will not be visible for about a minute. If you don't see your comment when the page reloads, do not post it again. Reload the page in a minute, and you'll see it. < BACK TO Features |
    
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