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: The FRAUDfiles Blog

R. Kelly acquitted: Will he ever get his reputation back?

By Tracy Coenen

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This week singer/producer R. Kelly (Robert Kelly) was acquitted by a jury of all 14 criminal charges related to child pornography. It took six years, but only 8 hours of jury deliberations, to reach this verdict. He was accused of first having sex with the alleged victim when she was 13.

The alleged victim (who is now 23) says that it wasn’t him in the videos, and her family members testified that it wasn’t even her on the video. Neither the prosecution nor the defense called the alleged victim to testify in the trial. (She has been uncooperative with the prosecution of the case since being called before a grand jury in 2002 and saying then that she wasn’t on the tape.) The defense also said that the man in the video wasn’t R. Kelly, as evidenced by a dark mole he has on his back, which is not seen on the back of the man in the video.

If he did have sex with such a young girl while in his 30’s, that’s sick and he deserves to be punished. But if he didn’t do it (as the jury apparently believes), what now? An acquittal by a jury is the best R. Kelly could have ever hoped for. But do you think the general public believes he didn’t do it? How does he ever restore his reputation?

Frankly, I don’t think he ever will get his reputation back. There has been too much negative media coverage since the allegations first surface. The allegations were extremely serious, and the alleged crime makes most normal people feel sick to their stomachs.

Add to that the fact that some of the jurors say they believed it was R. Kelly in the tape, but that most didn’t believe the alleged victim was the girl on the tape. Without bringing forth the right victim, they say they couldn’t convict him. Even the alleged victim’s family and acquaintances were sharply split as to whether or not it was her on the tape. If even the family couldn’t positively identify her, how should a jury?

Is he guilty or not? We’ll never know, but a jury has found him innocent and he will remain a free man. But none of the finger-pointing can be un-done, even after an acquittal. And I venture to guess that there will be quite a few people who will still believe he did the child pornography crimes but got lucky with the jury.

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Full post as published by The FRAUDfiles Blog on June 14, 2008 (boomark / email).