CHICAGO — Disgraced singer R. Kelly filed a pair of motions in Chicago’s federal court Tuesday seeking a new trial or an outright reversal of his conviction two months ago on child pornography and other sex abuse-related charges.
The motions filed by Kelly’s lead attorney, Jennifer Bonjean, almost certainly will be denied by the trial judge, but still preserve arguments that likely will be made later in an appeal to the 7th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.
Kelly, 55, was convicted by a jury in September on charges including child pornography related to his years of sexual abuse of his underage goddaughter, “Jane,” and other girls. He was acquitted, however, of the explosive allegations that he rigged his initial Cook County trial in 2008. U.S. District Judge Harry Leinenweber has set sentencing for Feb. 23.
In her first post-trial motion, filed after business hours Tuesday, Bonjean asked Leinenweber for a judgment of acquittal on all counts based on several technical factors, including that prosecutors had not proven that the infamous videotape of Kelly abusing “Jane” at his home on West George Street was made for the “purpose” of producing child pornography.
Bonjean also argued that there was insufficient evidence that the tape had ever crossed state lines, an element that prosecutors were required to prove. And on other counts, Bonjean argued, prosecutors failed to prove that Kelly had “coerced” underage victims to engage in sex acts.
Bonjean’s other motion asked for a new trial based on alleged misstatements by the government’s first witness at trial, Dr. Darrel Turner, who testified as an expert about how sexual predators “groom” underage victims.
Turner told the jury that he billed prosecutors $250 per hour for his work on the case, when the actual figure was $450, Bonjean wrote. He also underrepresented how many hours he was paid for, telling the jury it was two hours, when he actually billed for six and a half, according to Bonjean. She said prosecutors knew about the misstatements but failed to correct them for the jury.
“Had the jurors known that Dr. Turner actively misled them, the jurors would likely have rejected his testimony outright,” Bonjean wrote.
Prosecutors are expected to file responses to Bonjean’s allegations later this month.
Kelly, who is facing potentially decades in prison for the Chicago conviction, has already been sentenced to 30 years after a jury in New York found him guilty of racketeering conspiracy charges alleging his musical career doubled as a criminal enterprise aimed at satisfying his predatory sexual desires.
The former R&B star also faces four separate Cook County indictments, in which prosecutors allege he sexually abused or assaulted four people, three of whom were underage girls at the time.
Earlier this week, Cook County prosecutors said they were waiting on more information, including transcripts from the federal cases, before determining how to go forward on those cases.
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