Prosecutors in the R. Kelly trial rested their case yesterday (02.06.08) following explosive evidence from a key witness.
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Lisa Van Allen told the court she had threesomes with the singer – real name Robert Kelly – and an underage girl. Van Allen claimed Kelly told her the girl was 16, rather than her alleged real age of 13.
She also declared Kelly filmed them having sex, but stopped when she started crying.
Van Allen said: “He got upset and said he couldn’t watch that. He couldn’t do anything with that, with me crying. He stopped the camera.”
Kelly is on trial over 14 counts relating to a 26-minute video which shows a man having sex with a girl aged around 13.
Van Allen began her three-year relationship with the singer in 1998 – around the time he is accused of making the sex tape at the centre of the allegations he is on trial for.
As well as admitting to threesomes with Kelly and the girl in the tape, Van Allen identified both of them as appearing in the video being shown to the court.
She also claimed the singer carried a bag of sex videotapes with him “wherever he went”.
Van Allen, who was on the stand for most of yesterday, later alleged Kelly’s business manager Derrel McDavid paid her and another man USD20,000 each for the return of a sex tape.
She alleges that in March 2007, Kelly flew her and her fiance Yul Brown to Chicago in hopes of retrieving the videotape of the first threesome. Van Allen also claims Kelly offered her USD250,000 for the footage, paying her an initial USD20,000 with the promise of the remainder upon delivery of the tape.
Kelly’s defence insist Van Allen was lying, pointing to the fact that her current and previous boyfriends both have convictions for fraud.
Defence lawyer Sam Adam Sr. claimed the witness had “cooked up” the plan. Kelly faces up to 15 years jail if convicted.
