R. Kelly Fla. Child Porn Charges Dropped

[korkscru]

Well TLAW and Krissy, I can see that we all are on the same wave.

I'm an QMHP (Qualified Mental Health Professional). I do intensive in-home counseling with youths (5-17 years---males and females) who are SEVERELY at-risk for out-of-home placement. So, I KNOW how CHALLENGING these kids can be...ESPECIALLY the teen-aged girls. I deal with this stuff EVERY DAY. You can't tell them ANYTHING. The majority of them are very resistent to ANY authority and/or adult direction. MANY times I have had to "remove" myself from situations that would have made me FORGET that I am an ADULT and a PROFESSIONAL.

Since this stuff with R. (I mean, Rra) Kelly has developed, I have had time to read different articles about this and now the interviews. This is my professional OPINION, based on what I know to date (of course, I would haveto talk with him). But this is my opinion THUS FAR:
THIS MAN WAS ABUSED (SEXUALLY, EMOTIONALLY, MENTALLY, AND POSSIBLY PHYSICALLY) AT SOME POINT IN TIME IN HIS LIFE. In conjunction with that, he has issues with loss and death (his best friend was killed and his mother died). All of the signs are there and maybe THOSE are the PROBLEMS that he keeps talking about. Now this is CERTAINLY NO EXCUSE whatsoever for what he's done. But it adds INSIGHT into a lot of stuff.

Now, I'm one who FIRMLY believes (and I try to DRILL this into my teen-aged clients) that if you're not willing to deal with some of the significant issues and traumas that occur in your CHILDHOOD, then you can bet all that you have that it will come out when you're an ADULT (ALONG WITH all of your issues as an adult). THAT can be overwhelming and thus will cause adults to use poor judgement and act immorally and irrationally. It's not to say that you will FORGET or be "cured" of those things. But you'll be better able to COPE and FUNCTION more effectively. (Just for the record, I believe the same thing has happened to Mike Tyson...that's why he acts like such a FOOL today).

Now on the SPIRITUAL SIDE, Rra Kelly is dealing with a DEMON that has plagued him since CHILDHOOD. Like I said before, he's a man that was RAISED IN THE WORD. So, he KNOWS what to do and what has to be done.

[CrimsonTide4]

Originally posted by korkscru
But this is my opinion THUS FAR:
THIS MAN WAS ABUSED (SEXUALLY, EMOTIONALLY, MENTALLY, AND POSSIBLY PHYSICALLY) AT SOME POINT IN TIME IN HIS LIFE. In conjunction with that, he has issues with loss and death (his best friend was killed and his mother died). All of the signs are there and maybe THOSE are the PROBLEMS that he keeps talking about. Now this is CERTAINLY NO EXCUSE whatsoever for what he's done. But it adds INSIGHT into a lot of stuff.

Soror I have been saying that all along. I graduated with a degree in psychology and while it has not officially been used since graduation day, some things never leave you.

I did not watch either nights of his interview. However from what I have read on these boards and the listserve I belong to, his body language conflicts with his words.

Like TLAW and you, I work with teenagers all the time. Some of them have "crushes" on me. However, there is not a bone in my body that encourages that crush or seeks to play that crush out on the physical level. I am not a superstar like R. Kelly but I do believe that along with his former abuse of some sort as well as the death of his mother has left him feeling inadequate. I also believe that his actions that he is currently being targeted for are of a "Suicidal" nature meaning that he is doing this to just kill his career and his success. Some people resort to drugs or gambling, but R. Kelly has resorted to having sex with teenage girls. Somewhere in his mind, he sees this as less dangerous to his career and life.

[korkscru]

Soror, you hit the nail right smack dead on the head.

I kinda figured that he had been abused in some way when I read the article in VIBE magazine (the one with his picture on the front). VIBE (May 2002 issue) wrote (and I QUOTE):

"During the course of a two-day interview,..., the star's eccentricity was highly evident. It goes well beyond his documented refusal to wear underwear and his need to play basketball every night. Kelly admits he seeks solace in odd places."
Now get THIS yall. This is what VIBE QUOTED R. Kelly saying during that interview. "I GET GREAT SLEEP IN CLOSETS.... IT'S MENTAL FOR ME. I KNOW THAT NOBODY IN THE WORLD KNOWS WHERE I AM AT THAT POINT".

Now all of you counseling, psychology, and sociology majors (along with ANYONE else with any COMMON SENSE), if THAT is not a sign that SOMETHING happened to this man (at SOME point in his life), then I don't know what else is. I KNEW, particularly after reading his quote in VIBE that this man was dealing with some SERIOUS stuff.

THAT MAN IS REALLY, TRULY, AND SERIOUSLY SICK (in the head). He has some kind of MENTAL HEALTH DIAGNOSIS (and you can BELIEVE that)!!!!

[CrimsonTide4]

Now Soror
I remember a couple of years ago (99/00) when VIBE interviewed R. Kelly (I can't put my hands on said issue right now might be in a recycling process) but he said that he never wears underwear. Not only that but this was a point in his life where he was not sleeping very much. He would go to the studio, record/write, go play ball, but no sleeping. I will look for said magazine issue this week if I get a chance.

I have never slept in a closet. For him to find comfort in closets scares me because maybe he used to get put in closets as a child.

[korkscru]

Soror CT4, Girl, WE know that R. Kelly was abused (and I kinda have a feeling that OTHERS agree with us). Heck, R. KELLY knows that he was abused. He was abused FREQUENTLY and HARD. It's just so sad. All I can do is pray for him (and HIS victims). You see, THIS is how we get these sexual predators... Jeffery Daumer was abused. Mike Tyson was abused. Pee Wee Gaskins was abused. Heck, IKE TURNER was abused. I'm not saying this to be funny. I'm just saying that THIS is what I meant when I said that when PEOPLE don't deal with their childhood issues and traumas, when they become adults, stuff like this is more than likely the result. I just don't see HOW R. Kelly is going to get out of THIS mess. In MY opinion, ONLY God will be able to do that.

See, I KNEW that my soror would know what I'm talking about.

Hey, CT4, it just goes to show that great minds DO think alike.

[Resolve]

I wonder if you show the tape to one of those " body language experts", will they be able to tell he wasn't telling the truth? All that blinking made me wonder, but I was being very critical during the whole thing.

I have to agree that Ed Gordon could have asked some better follow up questions. Something more like when Connie Chung interviewed Gary Condit and PUT HIM ON FRONT STREET. We were all like..." naw man you better starting digging out this man's backyard right now!!"

[Gina1201]

Did anyone else listen to the Doug Banks show this morning? R. Kelly's brother, Kerry, was on there to supposedly talk about his brother's situation. Unfortunately, he did not shed any new light on the situation. He did have his corny song played that was "reaching out" to R. Kelly and saying how he had his back. But then later he said that if he felt that the scandal was taking a toll on his career, he's a singer also, that he would sue R. Kelly? WTH? Did I hear this right? If not, can someone please tell me what was up?

[nat24]

Was this the same brother that was on one of those T.V. court shows? Where was this brother before all of the scandal broke loose?

[Gina1201]

Yeah this was the same brother that was on a TV court show. I guess he was just in the background. He stated that he used to tour with R. Kelly though.

[D.COM]

HE HAS TO BE GUILTY - I KNEW IT!!!!

And that Interview DEFINATELY made him even more GUILTY....HA!

CHICAGO SUN-TIMES
http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/...s-kelly05.html

R. Kelly indicted on child pornography charges

June 5, 2002

BY JIM DEROGATIS AND ABDON M. PALLASCH STAFF REPORTERS

R&B star R. Kelly was indicted Wednesday on child pornography charges stemming from a videotape that officials say shows the Grammy winner having sex with an underage girl, a source in the Cook County State's Attorney's Office said.

A grand jury charged Kelly, whose first name is Robert, with 21 counts of child pornography, said the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The court documents were not immediately released.

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

The source said a warrant had been issued for Kelly's arrest.

"The charge is that there's a young lady under the age of 18 on that tape and there isn't. That's simply the stance that I'm taking. We're going to court and we'll disprove that she was underage," said Kelly's attorney Ed Genson. He said he had not seen the indictment.

Genson said the girl's family members also have denied that she is featured on the video. He would not comment on the age of the girl or whether Kelly was the man on the tape. Previously Kelly has denied that he is the man shown in the video.

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.


Contributing: MELANIE COFFEE ASSOCIATED PRESS

[thesweetestone]

Dang, I bet that MF crying now!

[1Babygirl2000]

All I can say is he betta cover his booty...or some dude named Big Ike gonna be feelin on his booty.

[dsmmi12]

I am to the point now.....when one of his songs comes on the radio I really feel like vomiting. SERIOUSLY! I have to change the station cause LAWD only knows what was going on in his mind when he made most of his songs.

A soror here in Chicago is freinds with the family of Sparkle and supposedly this young lady who was underaged in the video....R Kelly was HER FIRST. many people who I talked to questioned how she seemed to be so underdeveloped YET so experieinced in some of her repetoire

I have always known how he along with another big NBA star who was once on the Chicago Bull team would go to local high schools and hang out waiting on these young ladies. This man is SICK and he desperately needs some help.

Also, from what I understand because he was supposedlythe young girl's first and only experience (he had sex with her off and on for an extended period of time) her family fears that his deviant sexual behavior is the ONLY behavior she will now exhibit.

It is trully sad. I dont care what anyone says about his music...as an adult HE had responsibility to this child.


D.S.M.M.I. #12
Lambda 4-29-89
Chicago Alumnae

[korkscru]

Well, this is it. I TOLD my friend that they were going to make an example out of him, didn't I? These prosecutors are taking their time with this just to make sure that all of their ducks are in a row and he won't be able to beat the charges (with or without testimony from witnesses). Dang, that's DEEP!!! I can only IMAGINE what he's thinking and feeling right about now. I would imagine that he feels like I used to feel when I would get in trouble (when I was a child) and my mother told me to get the belt or a switch. But R. Kelly's situation is maximized like 1000 times. If I were him, I'd try to cut some kind of deal or something. Like Dr. Dre said, he's done. I'm just sitting here asking myself, "What in the WORLD did he do to the person in order for them to come out with that tape?" It HAD to be something serious because this person KNEW that they had him--hook, line, and sinker. You see, this just goes to show that you can't be shucking and jiving with people, ESPECIALLY when you do or have done some illegal or immoral things that they know about firsthand. I BET that it was one of his close "BOYZ" that had something to do with it. At any rate, the "cat is out of the bag" now. R. Kelly has a loooonnng and haaarrdd road ahead of him. Let's see if he can FLY now!!

[candygirl]

Korkscru you got me over here cracking up. LOL "shucking and jiving".

It was only a matter of time before his activities caught up with him. I really want to know who had it out for him becuase they knew exactly what they were doing. I want to know why it's taken so long for him to be indicted on the 21 acts of child pornography and statutory rape. The sad part about is that I don't think he's going to jail. I think he'll have to pay a fine and maybe have a probation. If he does go to prision he'll be playing golf and swimming laps in a pool. I don't think they'll put him with the common folk.