Agence France-Presse
CHICAGO - Six years after R. Kelly was slapped with child pornography charges over a homemade sex tape, the rhythm and blues superstar's long-delayed trial is set to begin Friday.
The scandal over accusations that Kelly filmed himself having sex with a girl as young as 13 seems to have little impact on the Grammy-award winning artist's popularity.
The Chicago-based singer, songwriter and producer has pumped out an album a year since he was arrested in June 2002 and has collaborated with everyone from Celine Dion to Kid Rock.
"A hit record makes you forget about the bad stuff and he's had six years worth," said Dion Summers, director of urban programming for XM Satellite Radio.
"It's not that his fans don't recognize it or acknowledge it. It's almost as if they don't care."
That may change if prosecutors are able to convince a jury that the 26-minute videotape -- which was leaked to the Chicago Sun Times and later appeared on the Internet -- indeed shows Kelly, 41, engaged in a number of sex acts with a young girl.
Complicating the case is the fact that the alleged victim, now 23, refuses to admit she is the girl in the raunchy tape, even though her friends, family and teachers identified her to a grand jury.
"That's a tough river to have to cross for the prosecution," said Ronald Smith, a John Marshall Law School professor. "But it's not impossible."
Prosecutors are expected to introduce a woman who will testify that she engaged in three-way sex with Kelly and the alleged victim, and have also asked the judge to allow them to introduce what they say is evidence of the crooner's past crimes.
At least three other women have filed civil lawsuits alleging that Kelly had sex with them when they were under the legal age of consent. No criminal charges have resulted from the cases.
He was arrested in Florida in 2003 on child pornography charges after police found a camera with photographs allegedly showing Kelly having sex with an underage girl. Those charges were dropped after a judge ruled the camera was illegally seized.
Kelly was also briefly married to his protege Aaliyah, tying the knot with the teen idol in 1994 when she was just 15.
The marriage was annulled by her parents and the Brooklyn-born songstress and actress died in a plane crash in the Bahamas in 2001.
Kelly, who grew up in the projects or public housing estates on the South Side of Chicago, and scored a massive hit with his 1997 tune "I Believe I Can Fly," has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
"R. Kelly is looking forward to his day in court and he is confident that when all the evidence comes out, he will be shown not to have committed any crime," spokeswoman Melissa Erickson told AFP.
The long-awaited trial has faced a number of delays, including when Kelly suffered from a burst appendix, the judge broke his shoulder falling off a ladder and a lead prosecutor gave birth.
Kelly's lawyers have also filed more than 30 motions, including efforts to have the case tossed out on constitutional grounds and to prevent an expert from testifying that sex abuse victims often refuse to admit to the abuse.
Many of the documents are under seal and Judge Vincent Gaughan has imposed a gag order on all participants and imposed strict rules governing court proceedings.
When a fan snapped a photo of Kelly during a pre-trial hearing, Gaughan ordered her to spend five days in jail on contempt charges and had her cell phone destroyed.
However, the few files which are open to public scrutiny offer an inside peak into the star's life.
While Kelly was allowed to travel in the United States for work -- appearing at awards shows and going on several tours -- he was required to check in with pre-trial services every day that he was outside of Illinois.
He was occasionally admonished for failing to check in, and would often leave messages apologizing if he forgot to call or when his tour bus broke down and he was late getting back to Chicago.
One note from April 30, 2003, reads: "Defendant is shooting video in desert about two hours from Los Angeles. All he can see is sand and helicopters."
Kelly faces up to 15 years in jail if convicted of 14 charges of child pornography.
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