Jury selection in R. Kelly’s child pornography and obstruction of justice trial begins today in Chicago, but the singer’s legal team has reportedly filed a motion, requesting a judge to ban any jurors who have watched his infamous “Surviving R. Kelly” documentary. According to reports, the “Step In The Name Of Love” star’s attorneys don’t believe that by allowing those who have seen the Lifetime docu-series that their client has a chance of undergoing a fair trial.
The request was said to have been made on Monday morning, with Kelly’s lawyers asking that any jurors — even if they have only seen parts of “Surviving” — are banned from the trial. The legal doc read, “Any potential juror who has watched any portion of this docuseries must be disqualified for cause on whether they can be fair, too great a risk exists that such a juror would base their verdict on matters not introduced into evidence in the courtroom.”
Well, R. Kelly’s Chicago trial starts tomorrow and to my understanding, the judge presiding over the case DOES NOT PLAY. Judge Harry Leinenweber is a senior statesmen on Chicago’s federal bench who has a low tolerance for nonsense.
This week will be ripe for intrigue.
— thong song enthusiast. (@thePLAINESTjane) August 14, 2022
Jurors would have already painted a picture of Kelly based on the series, which would undoubtedly influence their decision once the trial has concluded — regardless of any evidence the disgraced sex offender may have to prove his innocence in the case. “Any potential juror who has seen any portion of Surviving R. Kelly is prejudiced where there’s no scenario which an individual exposed to the contents of Surviving R. Kelly can be impartial,” the court document continued.
Furthermore, it’s mentioned that the documentary includes a lot of information that is not related to this particular case, such as his 2008 prosecution where he was acquitted on charges that he had taken illegal recordings of himself allegedly having sex with a 14-year-old minor. The unidentified female and her mother had apparently refused to testify, which resulted in Kelly escaping any prosecution.
It was just last month when Kelly’s legal representatives had also filed a motion to prevent his marriage to the late R&B singer Aaliyah from being brought up in the trial, stressing that the matter has absolutely nothing to do with the child pornography charges he’s facing in his latest trial.
R. Kelly’s federal trial in Chicago is set to start today at 10 am CST. While Kelly was already convicted of sex trafficking and sentenced to 30 years in prison by a Brooklyn federal court in June, he still faces child porn charges in Chicago. Full story to come @CourthouseNews
— Dave Byrnes (@djbyrnes1) August 15, 2022
“The voluminous discovery, in this case, reveals that scores of women have accused [Kelly] of engaging in varying forms of mistreatment toward them,” his legal team contended. “The government has not provided notice of any intent to offer such additional evidence. [Kelly] moves to bar any additional uncharged allegations of misconduct.”
As Hollywood Unlocked previously reported, pastor Nathan Edmond admitted that Kelly tied the knot with a then-15-year-old Aaliyah who had obscured her face during the intimate ceremony so that people wouldn’t take notice of the fact that she was underage. The self-proclaimed Pied Piper faces four child pornography counts, five additional enticement counts, and three counts related to having received child pornography.