An acquaintance of R. Kelly’s recalled how the singer once lugged a duffel bag everywhere — to recording studios, film sets and gyms. Stuffed inside, she said, was a collection of his homemade VHS…
Despite Kelly’s efforts in the 1990s to hold those recordings close, some leaked out. Untold numbers were copied and recopied and distributed nationwide through flea markets and street vendors. They have circulated for years and are still available on websites. A Pennsylvania man said he recently discovered one while cleaning his home.
Recordings have been integral to Kelly’s criminal cases.
A sole video was at the heart of his 2008 child pornography trial that ended with Kelly’s surprise acquittal. Video is behind some of the sexual abuse charges filed last month accusing the Grammy winner of violating three girls and woman.
A 45-minute video of Kelly having sex with a girl who says on camera that she’s 14 helped convince Cook County prosecutors to bring the new case, said Michael Avenatti, who handed the tape to prosecutors just weeks before charges.
«That’s the bombshell piece of evidence that led to the indictments,» Avenatti, who previously represented porn star Stormy Daniels in a lawsuit against President Donald Trump, said Wednesday.
It’s unclear how the first tapes got into the hands of someone other than Kelly. At the 2008 trial, prosecution witness Lisa Van Allen said Kelly was rarely seen without the duffel bag.
«Wherever he was at, the bag would follow him,» she told jurors.
Van Allen, who had an on-and-off affair with Kelly starting in 1997, said the recordings included ones of him having sex simultaneously with her and the girl prosecutors alleged was in the 2008 trial video.
At trial, Kelly attorney Sam Adam Jr. scoffed at the idea of the superstar hauling around a bag of sex tapes as if he were «some kind of porno Santa Claus.»
In all, over half a dozen videos have been referred to in court testimony or filings, or by journalists and lawyers.
Avenatti, who represents two accusers, said he gave prosecutors two tapes never previously made public, both featuring the same girl spotlighted in the 2008 trial. The second tape — turned over after charges were filed — was a 55-minute video shot sometime between 1999 and 2000.
