A jury acquitted R ’n’ B star R. Kelly of child pornography charges on Friday, finding he did not make an explicit videotape showing him having sex with an underage girl who called him “godfather.”
The 41-year-old Kelly, whose given name is Robert, could have faced a sentence of up to 15 years in prison on 14 counts of child pornography.
The eight-man, four-woman jury deliberated about six hours over two days before delivering the not guilty verdict on all counts.
The 26-minute videotape featured oral sex, masturbation and other explicit acts and was handed over to police by a Chicago newspaper reporter in 2002. It had circulated widely on the underground video market.
Authorities said the tape was shot at Kelly’s former Chicago home sometime between January 1998 and November 2000 when the girl was 13 or 14.
The tape was played in court for the jury, and the girl could be heard whispering “daddy” several times. Family members testified she considered Kelly her “godfather” who frequently gave her cash gifts. She sang in a group supported by the popular songwriter, singer and producer.
The girl, now 23, did not testify at the three-week trial in Cook County Criminal Court, having previously denied she was the girl on the tape. Kelly, who has toured and made million-selling albums during the six years since his initial arrest, denied being the man on the tape.
His life has come to resemble a freak show, but Michael Jackson may relaunch his career as a Las Vegas act, thanks to the private equity group that recently bought the loan on his Neverland Ranch in California to help the pop star avert foreclosure. Colony Capital is discussing with the former King of Pop various repayment options for the US$23 million debt, including a possible long-term engagement as the resident performer of a Vegas casino or nightclub.
The talks with Jackson were first reported on Friday by the Wall Street Journal. One idea under discussion, the newspaper said, was for Colony to install Jackson as a regular performer at one of its hotel-casinos, playing 180 nights a year. Another would be to create a musical extravaganza in which the Gloved One would appear 20 or 30 times a year, possibly with his brothers.
Colony also is pressing Jackson to go on TV, perhaps on Oprah Winfrey’s show, to make a public statement putting the Neverland Ranch and the controversy connected with it behind him, and to perform in a TV special proving to the world that he can still sing and dance.
In Europe, flamboyant Renault F1 boss Flavio Briatore married top model Elisabetta Gregoraci in lavish style here on Saturday serenaded by UK pop group Duran Duran.
F1 chief Bernie Ecclestone himself witnessed the union along with Benetton group chairman Luciano Benetton and right-wing politician Daniela Santanche. The more than 300 guests also included Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and Spain’s former prime minister Jose Maria Aznar.
French Cardinal Paul Poupard celebrated what the Italian press has dubbed the “wedding of the year,” uniting the 58-year-old playboy and Gregoraci, 28, in the 12th-century Santo Spirito in Sassia near the Vatican.
“I’m as excited as if a Grand Prix race was starting,” Briatore was quoted as saying, with press reports noting that his bride had coaxed him towards faith, along with a health scare in 2006, when kidney cancer was averted through an early diagnosis.
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