Disgraced R&B star R. Kelly’s attorneys are slated to start cross-examining a key witness towards him Friday, the tenth day of his Chicago federal trial on expenses regarding youngster pornography and obstructing justice.

Lisa Van Allen, 42, took the stand for about 5 hours Thursday and testified that again within the late Nineties, she had sexual contact with Kelly and his underage goddaughter on the behest of the singer, who additionally filmed and directed their encounters. After she took one of many tapes and despatched it to a buddy in Kansas Metropolis, Kelly and his associates provided her $250,000 to get it again, she mentioned.

Close to the tip of her direct examination, Van Allen broke down in tears as she described how Kelly’s affiliate, co-defendant Derrel McDavid, threatened her at a lawyer’s workplace in Chicago after she had failed a polygraph check in regards to the tape.

“He mentioned that I failed (the check), and that they need to have murked me from the start” — that’s, they need to have killed her, she testified.

In a bombastic cross-examination, McDavid’s lawyer Beau Brindley strongly disputed that characterization — stating that McDavid was Kelly’s enterprise supervisor and suggesting it was all a lie.

“You didn’t have any purpose to consider that he was some kind of murderous accountant, did you?” Brindley requested.

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Brindley requested why, if Van Allen’s purpose was to maintain individuals from seeing the intercourse tape, she didn’t simply destroy it after she stole it.

“I may’ve if that thought had crossed my thoughts,” she mentioned. She additionally denied taking the tape as a result of she wished to make use of it to extort Kelly for cash.

Kelly, 55, is charged with 13 counts of manufacturing of kid pornography, conspiracy to provide youngster pornography and conspiracy to impede justice.

Additionally on trial are McDavid and one other affiliate, Milton “June” Brown, who, based on the indictment, schemed to purchase again incriminating intercourse tapes that had been taken from Kelly’s assortment and conceal years of alleged sexual abuse of underage ladies.

Jurors within the carefully watched case have up to now heard from 14 different witnesses, together with Jane, who testified final week Kelly videotaped sexual encounters along with her when she was simply 14, then pressured and in the end paid off her and her household to stay silent. Clips from three of these movies have been proven to the jury final week.

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