The mole that R. Kelly’s defense team said would set him free popped up in court Thursday when the sex tape at the heart of the case was broken down for the jury.
In a near frame-by-frame analysis of the 27-minute video, an expert pointed out a few seconds in which a mole appears on the male participant’s back. The blemish is just left of the man’s spine, a few inches above his waistline.
Police photographs of a semi-nude Kelly taken after the R&B superstar’s arrest in 2002 show a dark mole in a similar location. His attorneys last week said Kelly has had the mole since childhood.
“There’s a mark on this man’s back [in the police picture] about the exact same size and position as the man in the video,” testified Grant Fredericks, a forensic video analyst.
Kelly, 41, faces child pornography charges stemming from a sex tape that authorities say he made with a girl as young as 13 between 1998 and 2000. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
The frozen video image appears to undermine the defense team’s assertion that Kelly could not be the man in the video because that person has an unblemished back. The defense downplayed the tape for jurors Thursday, saying the mark disappears several times during the poorly lit, amateur recording.
“There, not there,” lead defense attorney Ed Genson said as he showed the tape at half-speed. Kelly’s bigger concern, however, may be the upcoming testimony of Lisa Van Allen, a 27-year-old Georgia woman who is expected to testify next week that she engaged in a three-way sexual encounter with both the Grammy winner and the alleged minor in the sex tape. Her court appearance was postponed Wednesday after Damon Pryor, 33, contacted the defense with information he said would undermine her testimony.
Van Allen’s fiance, Yul Brown, said the man is Van Allen’s ex-boyfriend and the father of Van Allen’s 5-year-old daughter.
During a phone conversation from his home in suburban Atlanta on Thursday night, Brown described how his fiance met Kelly when she was a 17-year-old extra on the set of his “Home Alone” video in 1998. The video was shot in Alpharetta, Ga., the adopted hometown of the Connecticut-born Van Allen, Brown said.
The two soon became romantically involved, despite the fact that Kelly had married Andrea Lee two years earlier, Brown said. In 2001, Van Allen played the role of Kelly’s hair braider in his “I Wish” video, Brown said.
“They had a serious relationship,” Brown said. After moving to Chicago to be with Kelly in the late 1990s, Van Allen met the singer’s goddaughter, an Oak Park girl who authorities say is featured in the sex tape. Brown said the girls’ relationship evolved to include group sex with Kelly. The “I Believe I Can Fly” singer videotaped a three-way sexual encounter with himself, Van Allen and his goddaughter on at least one occasion, he said.
“Yes, a tape existed,” Brown said. “I won’t say if I have any knowledge of what happened to the tape.”
Brown would not comment on the specifics, saying he didn’t want to jeopardize the case.
“The truth will be out there,” he said. “Lisa is looking forward to setting the record straight.”
