Defense lawyers at R. Kelly’s child pornography trial in Chicago sought Wednesday to portray a key government witness as a liar and extortionist, contending the man first approached the R&B star in 2001 and demanded that Kelly pay $1 million or he’d go public with video that could put Kelly in serious legal peril.
Those assertions came during seven hours of often blistering cross-examination of Charles Freeman, a former merchandizing agent for Kelly who testified Tuesday that it was Kelly who first approached him, eventually offering Freeman $1 million to recover a VHS tape featuring Kelly.
