NOT LOOKING TOO GOOD FOR OLE KELZ!!!!


Ex-aide says R. Kelly on sex tape with girl


CHILD PORNOGRAPHY TRIAL Woman: Teen brought overnight bag to studio

May 28, 2008Recommend (9)

BY ERIC HERMAN AND KIM JANSSEN Staff Reporters
The young girl who allegedly appears in a sex video with R. Kelly visited the R&B star's recording studio regularly, did her homework there and once brought an overnight bag, Kelly's former personal assistant testified Tuesday.

Lindsey Perryman, now a recording company executive, said she met the girl at Chicago Trax Recording Studio one night in 1999 as the girl arrived with her parents and brother.

Tuesday's highlights

* Raven Gengler, 22, identifies her childhood friend as the female on the sex tape and R. Kelly as the male. Gengler admits she told a detective she recognized voices on the tape -- though she hadn't seen the tape yet.

* Tjada Burnett, a friend of the alleged victim's family, identifies her and Kelly on the tape. Burnett says the girl got braces after the period when the tape was made.

* Lindsey Perryman, Kelly's former assistant, identifies Kelly and the girl on the tape and expresses "shock."

* Investigator Alexandra Guerrero testifies about photos of R. Kelly's basketball mural featuring the Tasmanian Devil and other cartoon characters.

* Bennie Edwards Jr. identifies the girl on the tape as a relative of his.
"She had a pillow and an overnight bag with her," Perryman said.

The girl "would come there after school and do her homework," Perryman said.

Prosecutors contend the girl appears in a 27-minute video depicting her engaged in sex acts with Kelly. The 41-year-old R&B singer is charged with child pornography and has pleaded not guilty.

The girl, born in 1984, would have been 14 for most of 1999. Prosecutors contend the tape was made between 1998 and 2000.

Perryman, 27, worked for Kelly off and on from 2000 to 2006. Her duties ranged from picking up meals to acting as liaison between the singer and his record label. Sometimes she would pick the girl up at school, she testified.

Perryman, who said she thinks "so highly of Mr. Kelly and his family," nonetheless identified the female in the videotape as the underage girl and the man on the tape as Kelly.

Under cross-examination by defense lawyer Marc Martin, Perryman admitted she could not identify either of them the first time she saw the tape.

"I was in shock. I wanted to be 100 percent sure" before making the identifications, Perryman said.

Earlier Tuesday, another witness seemed to confuse the prosecution's chronology by testifying the girl had braces on her teeth after the videotape was made.

Tjada Burnett, a friend of the alleged victim's family, said the alleged victim had braces after the time the sex tape was made.

But defense lawyer Sam Adam Jr. showed jurors a photo of the alleged victim -- looking younger than the one on the sex tape -- wearing braces.

Later Tuesday, prosecutors showed a 1998 music video featuring the alleged victim in which she has no braces. The girl appeared in the video while part of a singing group with other family members.

One member of the group, Bennie Edwards Jr., testified the female in the sex video "favored" his relative, and that the man "favored" Kelly. But under cross-examination, Edwards admitted he wasn't certain about the identifications.

Also Tuesday, state's attorney investigator Alexandra Guerrero testified about photographs she took of a mural in a basketball court at Kelly's former North Side home. Based on the movie "Space Jam," the mural shows Kelly playing basketball against the cartoon Tasmanian Devil while Michael Jordan referees. In the stands sit other Looney Tunes characters, including Yosemite Sam, Elmer Fudd, and Foghorn Leghorn -- who holds a sign reading "Go R. Kelly!"

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