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Last Updated: Apr 9, 2007 - 12:46:40 AM |
A Chicago judge’s decision to allow the press and public to watch in open court R&B star R. Kelly’s infamous sex tape has raised concerns among ethicists and advocates for women.
The home video allegedly shows R. Kelly having sex with and urinating on a 13-year-old girl, who is now 21 and denies she’s the underaged teen seen in the tape.
“It’s hard to understand what the public benefit is of seeing this tape,” said Jane Doe Inc. spokeswoman Toni Troop.
“The way that cases are handled have a chilling effect on other victims when deciding whether to come forward about a sexually violent crime, for fear that they will be the ones that are put on trial,” Troop said yesterday.
The Grammy award-winning R. Kelly, 39, goes to trial this summer for child pornography four years after his 2002 arrest.
At a hearing Thursday, the judge called the home video the “whole crux” and “linchpin” of the case.
“If there was no tape, we wouldn’t have a case,” said Judge Vince Gaughan.
Kelly, who has a penchant for young girls, made the tape sometime between 1998 and 2000, prosecutors said. He pleaded not guilty to 14 counts of child pornography.
In 1994, Kelly secretly married budding R&B singer Aaliyah, who was 15 at the time. The marriage was later annulled and Aaliyah died in a plane crash in 2001.
Attorneys on both sides had asked the judge to show the tape to only jurors, attorneys and the judge.
Kelly faces up to 15 years in prison.
Judges usually go out of their way to protect the rights of children, pointed out Emerson College professor Jeff Seglin, who writes the New York Times Syndicate’s ethics column, “The Right Thing.” Seglin said he doesn’t know what is gained by allowing the public and press access to it.
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