CHICAGO — When Chicago-born R&B star R. Kelly walked out of the Cook County criminal courthouse a free man in 2008, it wasn’t just a stroke of luck.
Kelly’s stunning acquittal on child pornography charges nearly a decade and a half ago was the result of a carefully crafted strategy by a team of veteran Chicago criminal defense attorneys, who employed nearly every street-fight tactic in the 26th and California legal playbook.
Bury the court with paper. Delay the proceedings for years. Dirty up every witness you can. And when it comes to the prosecutors’ smoking gun, a videotape allegedly showing Kelly sexually assaulting a 13-year-old girl, relentlessly question its authenticity — and keep the victim on your side.
