R. Kelly believes the charges against him don’t fly.

Attorneys for the embattled singer filed a bevy of motions in a Chicago courtroom Monday, trying to lift or lessen numerous kiddie-porn charges against their client.

Kelly was arrested in June 2002 after a videotape of him allegedly having sex with an underage girl went public in February 2002. Last year, he was indicted on 21 counts of child pornography.

But his attorneys are seemingly working around the clock to poke holes in the prosecution’s case.

According to the prosecution, the videotaped sex acts allegedly took place sometime between November 1, 1997 and February 1, 2002. Kelly’s lawyers were quick to jump on the broad timeframe, pointing out that girl could have been anywhere from 13 to 17 years old when she was taped. The window of time, they argue, is too gaping for Kelly to mount an adequate defense.

“It’s no secret that Mr. Kelly is a well-known musician, who frequently travels,” states a motion from the defense team. “By failing to narrow the date of the charged offense, Mr. Kelly is wholly deprived of the opportunity to bring an alibi defense.”

If the alleged Kelly sex partner was 17 at the time, not 14 as previously suggested by prosecutors, it was legal for Kelly to have sex with her, just not to film the encounter. That brings up another major flaw in the Illinois child pornography statute as pointed by Kelly’s legal eagles in another motion.

“It is not illegal to own a camera,” the motion states. “Nor is it illegal to have sex with a 17-year-old. It is illogical, irrational and disproportionate to subject one to a criminal conviction for taking pictures of conduct that does not otherwise violate the law.”

That’s if the girl even appears on film at all. And if it was even R. Kelly seen with her. It’s the contention of the Kelly defense team that the man seen in the video is perhaps not the R&B superstar at all–but a “computer morphing” of him, making it appear that he’s knocking boots with a youngster, when really no such act ever took place.

Kelly’s lawyers cited evidence from a recent federal court case, arguing that “computer morphing is known to occur in child pornography cases. Rather than creating original images, pornographers can alter innocent pictures of real children so that the children appear to be engaged in sexual activity.”

However, a computer expert commented to the Chicago Sun-Times that the likelihood of the R. Kelly video being morphed was “slim to none–26 minutes of putting someone else’s head on someone’s body, you’re talking about hundreds of thousands of hours of frame-by-frame manipulation to make that work.”

The girl allegedly featured –who R. Kelly thanks by name as his goddaughter in the liner notes of his album TP2.com–denies that she appears in the video, as do her parents, making it all the more difficult for the prosecution to determine a date when it was made.

But the girl’s aunt told the Sun-Times that her niece appears to be about 14 in the tape, while forensic pediatrician Dr. Sharon Cooper reportedly plans to testify for the state that she has done a scene-by-scene analysis of the tape, that the girl is under 18 and that the man’s body type is consistent with Kelly’s. Unsurprisingly, Kelly’s legal team objects to that line of testimony.

Despite the criminal charges against the singer, Kelly remains a fan favorite. He pulled down finalist nods in five categories for the upcoming 2003 Billboard Music Awards, and was honored as the 2003 R&B Vanguard at the recent Vibe Awards.

A Chicago judge even allowed the singer to continue his Key in the Ignition Tour this October with the caveat that he return to his home state by November 4.

Kelly is due back on court on February 6, 2004. Prosecutors have until then to respond to the latest motions filed by his defense team.

Credit: E! Online

By Music-Slam.com

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