She's been described over several weeks of testimony as a Christian singer
and a point guard, a participant in three-way sex and as the goddaughter to one
of the music industry's biggest stars.
Even the family of the alleged victim in the R. Kelly child pornography trial
doesn't seem to agree about her, especially about whether she's on a 27-minute
sex tape that could send the R&B star to prison for up to 15 year if
convicted.
The alleged victim says it's not her on the tape. So testimony from
prosecution and defense witnesses has sometimes painted contrasting pictures of
the person who once called Kelly her "godfather."
Four family members have testified for the prosecution that she is the person
on the tape; three have testified for the defense that she's not.
Asked by prosecutors whether the family has "split in half as a result of
this incident," one relative, Leroy Edwards Jr., answered softly, "Yes."
Kelly, 41, has pleaded not guilty to 14 counts of child pornography. His
lawyers say it's neither him nor the alleged victim on the tape, suggesting the
images could have been computer-generated¡ªpossibly in a bid to extort money from
the singer.
Prosecutors say she was as young as 13 when the tape was made. Now 23, the
woman has been identified at the trial, but The Associated Press does not name
suspected victims of child pornography in most cases. She has not spoken
publicly about the case.
Photographs of her when she was about 13 show a short, smiling, and
cherub-faced girl. In pictures shown to jurors, she's in uniform after
basketball games, her arms around other players. Prosecutors also played a music
video featuring the girl and three other teens in a R&B-tinged musical group
that toured Europe several times in the '90s.
No one questions that Kelly and the alleged victim knew each other.
Singer Stephanie "Sparkle" Edwards, best known for the 1998 duet "Be Careful"
with Kelly and is a relative of the alleged victim, introduced her to Kelly at a
music studio when the girl was around 13 and Kelly was around 30, Edwards
testified.
"He liked her spirit," a teary-eyed Edwards told jurors. "She was a very
jolly person." The girl was fond of Kelly "as a father figure," recalled
Edwards, adding she didn't suspect a sexual relationship until news broke years
later about the tape.
Sometime after meeting Kelly, the alleged victim began telling her friends
and acquaintances he was her godfather, her childhood friend Simha Jamison
testified. Jamison, now a 24-year-old hair stylist, also told jurors that Kelly
frequently gave her friend cash gifts and the two teens would go on shopping
sprees with the money.
Some of the testimony has focused on her physical features.
A middle school basketball coach said he recognized the alleged victim as the
female in the tape by her high forehead, saying he and her friends would joke
with her about it.
"You were joking about a seventh grade girl having a big forehead?" defense
attorney Marc Martin snapped at Joel Rhea, sounding incredulous. "The kids
were," Rhea responded.
A relative testifying for the defense, Charlotte Edwards, told jurors the
female in the video couldn't be the alleged victim because the breasts of that
person were too large.
Prosecution witness Lisa Van Allen, 27, told jurors she had three-way sex
with Kelly and the alleged victim several times, starting in 1998. During one
encounter in a trailer at the set of a music-video shoot, the alleged victim
"had to run into the bathroom naked" when someone came to the door because Kelly
didn't want others to see her there, Van Allen testified.
Prosecutors said they would not ask the alleged victim to testify. The
defense hasn't said whether they will, though Kelly attorney Sam Adam Jr. asked
jurors in opening statements why prosecutors chose not to call her.
"One answer," he said, his voice booming. "One: It's not her on that tape."
To bolster their argument that the female on the tape and the alleged victim
couldn't be the same person, the defense has taken frequent opportunities to
praise her character.
"(She) is as sweet, as nice and as lovely a person there is," Adam said
during opening arguments.
He juxtaposed that image with the female in the video, who takes money from
the man before having sex with him. "The woman on that tape is getting paid," he
said. "The woman is a prostitute, not a victim."
Another Kelly attorney, Ed Genson, made a similar point when he
cross-examined prosecution witness Bennie Edwards Jr., another relative and a
member of the alleged victim's music group.
Asked if the way the female acted in the video bore any resemblance to the
alleged victim as he knew her, Edwards shook his head: "It's not her character
at all."