R. Kelly Witness Returns to Atlanta

Judge rules DeRogatis must testify
Sun-Times music critic Jim DeRogatis must testify for the defense in R. Kelly’s child porn trial, Judge Vincent Gaughan ruled this morning.

DeRogatis passed the notorious sex tape at the center of the case to police for investigation in 2002, and Kelly’s attorneys say it is “crucial” to the singer’s defense that DeRogatis testify.

Sun-Times attorney Damon Dunn argued Friday morning that DeRogatis should be protected from testifying by the Illinois reporter’s privilege and the First Amendment. Kelly’s attorneys were attempting to create a “chilling effect” against reporters covering Kelly by bringing DeRogatis in to testify, he said.

Anything DeRogatis could say in court would be “irrelevant” to Kelly’s defense, he added.

But Gaughan sided with Kelly’s attorney Marc Martin, saying that the reporter’s privilege only protects journalists from identifying their sources. Gaughan said he would not allow Kelly’s team to question DeRogatis about his sources, or to ask him how he got the tape, or to ask DeRogatis if he made a copy of the tape. “He will have to testify,” Gaughan concluded.

Gaughan also said DeRogatis would have to turn over any notes relating to that meeting with Sparkle, saying that he did not believe that would reveal anything about DeRogatis’s sources.

Previous testimony has shown that DeRogatis told police an anonymous tipster left the tape in his mailbox.

In ruling that DeRogatis must testify, Gaughan said the defense had said “seven times that they are not interested in his sources.”

Kelly’s attorneys say they believe DeRogatis may undermine the testimony of Stephanie “Sparkle” Edwards, who told police she had seen a copy of the tape with DeRogatis on a date after DeRogatis had passed the tape to police.

Martin told Gaughan, “This case began with Mr. DeRogatis passing on that tape and we certainly have a right to present that evidence to the jury.”

Martin added that DeRogatis had a “extreme bias” against Kelly.

He added, “The bias was so strong that it impelled the reporter to violate the law,” suggesting that DeRogatis had made an “illegal” copy of the tape before passing it police.

Speaking outside court after Gaughan’s ruling, Dunn said DeRogatis would appeal.

Pitted against each other as witnesses, Lisa Van Allen and Damon Pryor share a past — and a child.

Van Allen, 27, is the prosecution’s star witness who is expected testify she had a three-way sexual encounter with R. Kelly and the underage girl who allegedly appears in a sex video with the singer.

Van Allen, who lives in the Atlanta area, at one time possessed another sex videotape featuring Kelly, sources previously told the Sun-Times. A Kelly aide paid her to get it back, sources said. The tape showed Van Allen, the underage girl, and Kelly engaged in sex acts, a source said.

With Van Allen’s testimony expected this week, the defense revealed Wednesday it had a new witness — Pryor — who could undermine her credibility.

Pryor is Van Allen’s former boyfriend and the father of her daughter, according to Yul Brown, who lives with Van Allen and says he is her fiancé.

“He’s just looking for his 15 minutes of fame,” Brown said of Pryor.

Van Allen was born in Hartford, Conn. and grew up in Atlanta, Brown said. She is currently four months pregnant, he said.

She met Kelly while the singer was filming a video for his song “Home Alone.” She then went on tour with him, Brown said.

Her hobbies include cooking and traveling, Brown said, and she often watches ‘Keeping Up With the Kardashians’, he said.

@ shunda:

this $hit is like a circus!

He flying people in to lie on the stand!! His ass is wanted!!!

He should have been trying to buy this nigha an identity. R. Kelly is stupid and so are his lawyers!!!

…HOW do trifling, nasty chicks keep men…damn! Her man defending her, she is a admitted child molestor and blackmailer, yet engaged and 4 months pregnant and of course the usual somebody’s baby mama already..that due is testifying against her, no matter that she has his child, plus that b*tch admits to watching Kim and her tribe, lock her horrible azz up. I suspect her men are the ones nobody wants but damn how do these people exist….