In a federal hearing on Thursday, a former girlfriend of R. Kelly sobbed as she testified about how Kelly’s longtime business manager told her in 2007 that they should have killed her rather than paying her to return a videotape that showed Kelly having s*x with her and a 14-year-old girl.
On the ninth day of Kelly’s federal trial in Chicago, Lisa Van Allen, 42, entered the stand as a witness. Kelly and two of his accomplices, Derrel McDavid and Milton “June” Brown, are accused of plotting to bribe witnesses and purchase s*x tapes in order to cover up years of Kelly’s sexual misconduct.
Van Allen testified that she had s*x with Kelly and his minor goddaughter in the late 1990s at the singer’s request; the singer allegedly filmed and directed their interactions. Kelly offered her $250,000 to get the video back after she grabbed one and sent it to a friend in Kansas City, the woman claimed.
Van Allen broke down in tears as she recalled how McDavid threatened her at a Chicago law office after she failed a polygraph test regarding the tape near the end of her direct examination.
He claimed that she failed the test and that she should have been murdered because they should have done so from the start.
She then lied to a lawyer at McDavid’s request, denying she ever had any sexual contact with Kelly’s goddaughter, who had testified previously in the trial using the alias “Jane.”
She bowed her head and covered her mouth with a shaky hand as she sobbed, saying, “He told me to say it and I was terrified not to do what he asked.” “I had no idea they were planning to kill me.”
Van Allen informed McDavid that she would bring Kelly’s remark to Kelly’s attention because she was offended by it. She added, her voice breaking, “He said Rob knew everything that was going on.”
McDavid pursed his lips and shook his head slowly as he turned to face Kelly at the defense table.
Beau Brindley, an attorney for McDavid, vigorously cross-examined Van Allen regarding her assertion that she had been threatened, pointing out that McDavid was Kelly’s business manager and implying that the whole thing was a fraud.
You didn’t really think he was some kind of bloodthirsty accountant, did you? said Brindley.
If Van Allen wanted to prevent others from viewing the s*x tape, Brindley questioned why she didn’t simply delete it after stealing it.
If the thought had occurred to her, she could have, she claimed. She also denied taking the tape with the intention of extorting money from Kelly.
Brindley claimed there was never a film of Kelly having s*x with Van Allen and Jane and that instead, Van Allen had provided a tape of herself having a threesome with Kelly and his wife. This was maybe a preview of McDavid’s anticipated testimony later in the trial. Van Allen categorically disagreed.
Van Allen, according to Brindley, is a manipulator and chronic liar.
Is it a person you should trust, someone who lies and fakes emotion to try to control others? Grindley enquired. Van Allen claimed that she didn’t understand what he was saying.
Van Allen has previously stated that Kelly was the first person she met when she was 17 years old. However, she admitted on the witness stand on Thursday that while she initially believed that to be the case, she now realizes that she was actually 18 instead.
She was accused by Brindley of fabricating her age in order to attract attention.
He exclaimed, “You wanted to be a victim! To market books!
In the courtroom, the claim sparked a flurry of responses and criticism. Van Allen shook her head and rolled her eyes while testifying.
R Kelly's ex-girlfriend tells his sex abuse trial how he forced her to have an abortion as part of his controlling and violent behaviour during five year relationship during which he hit if she disobeyed himhttps://t.co/KADUOzTPLq pic.twitter.com/dufIzwWZDF
— NowMyNews (@NowMyNews) August 25, 2021
Van Allen was constantly questioned by Brindley over contradictions in her accounts of the recording over the years. Van Allen began to cry at one point when he began questioning her about her testimony to a federal grand jury in 2019.
If there was “something particularly tragic” about asking her about her grand jury testimony, Brindley sarcastically questioned. “Yes! She yelled, “I’m sick of you asking me if I watched child porn. Brindley snorted.
Prosecutors objected to the questioning at least twice, claiming Brindley was intimidating the witness. And he received repeated instructions to proceed more rapidly from Judge Harry Leinenweber.
Brindley showed a portion of the “Surviving R. Kelly” documentary to the jury to demonstrate his claims regarding Van Allen’s possibly contradictory statements. Van Allen was giving his testimony with the Chicago cityscape in the background for a little period of time after the clip had ended due to the screens staying frozen on an establishing shot.
Many of the jury members took notes as they listened carefully to most of Van Allen’s testimony, and some of them leaned forward in their chairs and rested notebooks on the bench in front of them.
14 years ago, at Kelly’s first criminal trial in Cook County, which resulted in the singer’s acquittal, Van Allen was a contentious witness. Like back then, Van Allen was giving his testimony on Thursday while protected from prosecution.
Van Allen testified that in 1998, she first met “Jane,” Kelly’s goddaughter. Jane would have been about 14 years old at the time, while Kelly claimed to be 16 years old, according to Van Allen.
Van Allen stated that the three of them engaged in three sexual encounters over the following three years, and Kelly recorded each one. Kelly would put up the tripod and video camera, and Van Allen mimed this for the jury using her hands.
before she began her testimony. Van Allen swiveled in her chair, calm but a little tense, and frequently stopped to drink from a water bottle. Her face became very grave as she talked about the sexual encounter with young Jane.
A woman testified R. Kelly raped her hundreds of times before she was 18, with abuse starting when she was 14.
She is the first survivor to testify at his Chicago trial for alleged sex crimes and obstruction of justice. He is already serving 30 years on sex trafficking charges. pic.twitter.com/jwO0JmJqLw
— AJ+ (@ajplus) August 18, 2022
Van Allen said that she started crying during the second threesome because she did not want to take part.
What was Kelly going to do with this, Kelly exclaimed? … I suppose because it wouldn’t have made a very compelling viewing if I had been there sobbing.
Van Allen claimed that Kelly’s team interrupted a meeting in 2000. She said that Kelly told “Jane” to hide in the restroom, but he didn’t tell Van Allen.
Jane informed Van Allen the same year that she would be celebrating her 16th birthday with a PT Cruiser. When they had their first sexual encounter two years prior, Van Allen was unhappy because, according to her testimony, she had thought Jane was 16 at the time.
Van Allen declared, “I didn’t want to do any more threesomes” after that. I didn’t want to participate in the initial encounters, but I most definitely didn’t want any more. given that she was 14! She had to be fourteen.
Van Allen testified that Kelly would bring his s*x films with him in a duffel bag. Around the year 2000, she eventually realized she was by herself with the suitcase and began searching for any tapes she had been on.
She said, “I didn’t want him to have them.” “I didn’t want him to see them or hold them in his hands,” she said.
She testified that Van Allen gave the tape to her friend Keith Murrell.
She didn’t learn that the tape might be for sale until 2007, at which point, she said, she started to worry. She said that she did not want it to be public and that Kelly would assist her in getting it back.
She remarked, “On this tape, it literally mentioned how old she was, and he had an upcoming trial for a similar recording.
Kelly and Van Allen first met at his Olympia Fields estate, where Kelly later offered to pay her $250,000 to return the recording after they shared a hot tub together. She stated that he also instructed her to deal with McDavid “going forward.”
She claimed that after that, she and Murrell brought the tape back and underwent many polygraph examinations. They received some of the money back from McDavid, and Van Allen was informed that they would receive the remainder following Kelly’s trial, according to her.
She testified that McDavid said they should have just killed her after informing her she had failed the third polygraph.
Van Allen testified on Thursday that Kelly was 18 years old when they first met in 1998. She met him during film production, and soon after, she started making plans to go visit him in Chicago, she claimed.
She testified that shortly after, she went to Chicago permanently and started seeing Kelly. When Kelly visited, she said that Kelly kept causing her to miss her flights.
She stated, “I told him I couldn’t keep missing my flights, I’ll get fired. “I told him when he inquired what I had made. In the end, he simply gave me the money.
She stated that Kelly would instruct her on what to do and say during their sexual meetings and would frequently videotape them having s*x, especially when they conducted threesomes.
She claimed that Kelly forbade her from conversing with or making eye contact with other males when they were together. She warned that if she didn’t “listen to Daddy,” he would strike her.
A total of 13 counts of producing child pornography, conspiring to make child pornography, and conspiring to obstruct justice have been brought against Kelly, age 55. According to the indictment, McDavid and Brown plotted to cover up years of alleged sexual abuse of minor girls by purchasing incriminating s*x videos that Kelly’s collection had lost.
14 additional witnesses have testified in front of the jury so far in the closely watched case, including Jane, who said last week that Kelly videotaped her having s*x with her when she was only 14 years old, then coerced and eventually paid her and her family to keep quiet. On Friday, the jury saw snippets from three of the tapes.
Charles Freeman, a Kansas City merchandiser who testified to the jury that Kelly and his associates agreed to pay him up to a million dollars in the early 2000s to find additional incriminating videos before they could be made public, has dominated this week’s proceedings. Freeman is another important prosecution witness.
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