CHICAGO — A number of last-minute issues are already hanging over R. Kelly’s federal trial in Chicago as jury selection gets underway on Monday, including a request by Kelly’s attorney over the weekend to dismiss potential jurors who have seen the popular Lifetime docu-series “Surviving R. Kelly.”
In a motion filed Sunday, Kelly’s attorney, Jennifer Bonjean, wrote that the potential pitfalls over the series, which details years of sexual misconduct allegations against the Chicago-born R&B singer, go far beyond the usual concerns over jurors being exposed to negative pretrial publicity.
“This is an issue of potential jurors possessing a mountain of information about the specific allegations in this case and the witnesses’ stories that will play center stage at this trial and may or may not be admissible,” Bonjean wrote. “Allowing an individual to sit on this jury who has seen ‘Surviving R. Kelly’ is no different than allowing a juror to sit on the jury who was permitted to preview the discovery in this case.”
