[prayerfull]

June 5, 2002

BY JIM DEROGATIS AND ABDON M. PALLASCH CHICAGO SUN-TIMES STAFF
REPORTERS

A grand jury indictment will be announced today against R. Kelly,
accusing the chart-topping R&B superstar of violating child pornography
laws, sources told the Sun-Times on Tuesday.

Prosecutors have a videotape sent anonymously to the Sun-Times
appearing to show R. Kelly committing various sex acts with a 14-year-old girl.

State law prohibits producing or disseminating child pornography or
soliciting a minor to participate in sex acts on tape or film.

The Class 1 felony charge carries a prison term of up to 15 years, and
a fine of up to $100,000.

For more than three years Chicago police investigated charges that
Kelly was having a sexual relationship with the then-14-year-old daughter
of an associate. But the girl and her parents denied the allegations.

The Sun-Times reported the investigation in a December 2000 story about
Kelly's pattern of pursuing underage girls for sex.

The big break in the case came in February when a videotape was sent
anonymously to the Sun-Times. Kelly apparently made the tape of himself
engaging in various sex acts--including acts involving urination with
the underage girl.

The tape was turned over to the sex crimes unit of the Chicago Police.
Kelly has denied having sex with underage girls and maintained in a
recent TV interview that he's not the man on the tape.

Cook County State's Attorney Richard Devine impaneled a grand jury that
heard dozens of witnesses identify Kelly and the teen on the tape and
confirm that they had a sexual relationship.

The tape was authenticated by the FBI, which determined it could not
have been a forgery. Bootleg copies of the video are available for sale
on street corners across the country--$10 for VHS, $15 for DVD.

In recent years, Kelly has paid settlements to three young women who
filed lawsuits or threatened to sue him over underage or coerced sexual
relationships. A fourth woman has filed suit claiming Kelly coerced her
into a sexual relationship when she was a minor, and he coaxed her to
have an abortion. That case is pending.

Yet another lawsuit was filed by a 33-year-old dancer who charges that
she was unknowingly videotaped by Kelly during sexual relations. That
case also is pending.

Kelly has responded to the lawsuits by trying to tarnish the women's
reputations. Before Tiffany Hawkins filed a suit she ultimately settled
against Kelly, charging that he coaxed her to participate in group sex
with him when she was 15, Kelly filed a preemptive suit against her for
blackmail. That suit was dismissed.

This week, copies of rap sheets for minor misdemeanors that Kelly's
other accusers purportedly have been charged with have been sent
anonymously to local news outlets.

Kelly is hardly the first celebrity to be accused of taking advantage
of young girls. Gary Glitter, Rob Lowe, Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis,
Roman Polanski, Rolling Stone Bill Wyman and even the legendary Errol
Flynn all have been the subject of news reports for allegedly having
trysts with minors.

Chicago police interviewed dozens of people who knew Kelly, the girl in
the tape or both. Because the girl and her parents denied it was her,
police and prosecutors reportedly had to build the case against Kelly
around them.

While police and other family members who were cooperating with the
investigation grew impatient for prosecutors to charge Kelly, the Cook
County state's attorney's office took months, it said, trying to make sure
it had an ironclad case.

Prosecutors were haunted by a case 14 years ago, when they had a
similarly uncooperative witness who had been taped having sex with a man when
she was underage. Prosecutors charged him anyway, and he was acquitted.

Since then, the state's attorney's office has adopted a more aggressive
stand. In 1995, Beverly Heard refused to testify that she and U.S. Rep.
Mel Reynolds had sex when she was 16. They put her in jail for 13 days,
until she agreed to testify. Reynolds was convicted.

In recent TV interviews, Kelly insisted that, despite the controversy
over the video purporting to show him having sex with a minor, he never
felt compelled to seek out or watch one of the many bootleg copies of
the tape.

"If people out there have a tape of me and they're saying it's me and a
young girl, a minor . . . then they're sadly mistaken or they're
lying," Kelly said on BET. "I can say it with all confidence right here that
it isn't me because I didn't do it. Nowadays, you can make a tape, you
can make a song; it can sound like a person or look like a person . . .
but that's not me."

He did not explain how a 26-minute tape in which the protagonist is
seen staring into the camera and adjusting it could be faked, a feat video
experts have told the Sun-Times would be difficult even for a major
movie studio to pull off.

As the accusations against Kelly have mounted and the videotape of him
has circulated across the country, his fellow hip-hop artists have
distanced themselves from him. "Thong Song" singer Sisqo's new track, "This
Is the Heart," offers the lyric, "The World's Greatest? Whatever! Ain't
nothing but a child molester."

Kelly's album with rapper Jay-Z, "The Best of Both Worlds," sold far
less than expected when it was released in April. Industry executives
blamed the scandal. Jay-Z refused to tour, make videos or even be
photographed with Kelly after the police probe was disclosed.

Rapper Nas recently told an L.A. audience, "We're not up here molesting
children. We're not 'The Best of Both Worlds.' "

Multiplatinum producer Dr. Dre has decided not to release a track with
Kelly. Dr. Dre was quoted in the British newspaper New Nation as
saying, "I haven't seen the video, nor do I want to see it because there's a
kid involved. That's where I draw the line. You can do almost anything
except touch kids or something like that. That's a no-no. You know what
I'm saying? If he's guilty, he's over. I'm just waiting for the
results."

Ministers and community activists in Chicago, Philadelphia, New York,
Atlanta and Los Angeles have decried Kelly's behavior and urged boycotts
of stores that sell his albums and radio stations that play his music.


R. Kelly's ups, downs

January 1992
Kelly releases his debut album, "Born Into the '90s." It sells more
than 1 million copies.

November 1993
Kelly releases "12 Play." It sells 5 million copies.

June 1994
Aaliyah releases her Kelly-produced debut, "Age Ain't Nothing But A
Number." It sells 1 million copies.

Aug. 31, 1994
Kelly and Aaliyah are married in Rosemont.

Feb. 7, 1995
A Michigan judge dissolves the marriage.

September 1995
Michael Jackson's Kelly-produced single "You Are Not Alone" becomes his
first No.1 hit since his sex scandal.

July 1996
Kelly is booked on battery charges in Lafayette, La., after a fight on
the basketball court at a health club. Sources say Kelly desperately
fears doing time in jail.

November 1996
Kelly releases his third album, titled "R. Kelly."

December 1996
The single "I Believe I Can Fly," from the "Space Jam" soundtrack,
peaks at No. 2. Also, Tiffany Hawkins files a lawsuit against Kelly,
charging that he encouraged her to have sex with him when she was underage.

January 1998
Kelly pays Hawkins $250,000 to drop her suit shortly after she gives a
7-1/2-hour deposition about their sexual activities.

April 1998
Kelly is arrested in Chicago for disorderly conduct after allegedly
becoming verbally abusive when asked to turn down the stereo in his 1998
Lincoln.

May 1998
The disorderly conduct charges are dropped.

November 1998
Kelly releases his fourth album, "R." It sells 6 million copies.

April 2000
Aspiring rapper Tracy Sampson, 17, begins having sex with Kelly,
according to her lawsuit.

November 2000
Kelly releases his fifth album, "TP2.com." It debuts at No. 1.

December 2000
A Chicago Sun-Times report details Kelly's alleged trysts with underage
girls.

February 2002
A videotape anonymously sent to the Sun-Times appears to show Kelly
engaging in sex acts with a 14-year-old girl. The Sun-Times turns the tape
over to police.

March 2002
Bootleg copies of the tape begin showing up for sale across America.

April 2002
Kelly settles Sampson's lawsuit, even as another woman, Patrice Jones,
files a new suit accusing Kelly of coercing her into a sexual
relationship when she was 16.

May 2002
A fourth woman settles with Kelly before filing a lawsuit, and a fifth,
Montina Woods, 33, sues Kelly for invasion of privacy, saying she
thought her sex act with him was private, then found out he secretly
videotaped it.
Kelly does TV interviews to deny the accusations in the lawsuits and
say he's not the man in the videotape.

June 2002
Kelly to be indicted for violating state child pornography laws.