CHICAGO — R. Kelly’s attorney on Friday began to cross-examine the key witness in his Chicago federal trial, a woman who now says she was the young teenager seen on an infamous sex tape that led to Kelly’s indictment on child pornography charges two decades ago.
The woman, who was referred to in court by the pseudonym “Jane,” spent about four hours testifying on direct examination Thursday that Kelly struck up a clandestine sexual relationship with her when she was an impressionable young teenager in the 1990s.
Kelly’s lead attorney Jennifer Bonjean, however, focused her initial cross-examination on Jane’s adulthood. She showed Jane a long series of text messages between Jane and Kelly dating from 2018 and 2019, establishing that the two had relatively recent contact.
