Urban Thought Collective

Aaron McGruder wins the pool. His take-no-prisoners comic strip, “The Boondocks,” and its Cartoon Network counterpart predicted years ago that R. Kelly would beat his child pornography case, largely because of the public’s adoration of celebrities. That may be precisely what happened last Friday in that Chicago courtroom. At first, I was surprised by this travesty of justice. Then I wasn’t. Now, I’m just disgusted. This jury blew it worse than the Lakers.

Despite a procession of witnesses who identified Kelly and the alleged victim, Roshonda Landfair, in the kinky home video, jurors decided that they couldn’t tell who the young female in the tape is (although most were convinced that the man is Kelly). “You want to be 100 percent sure… (and) what we had wasn’t enough,” said one juror.

That’s deep. “110%” sure was the term used by R. Kelly’s former personal assistant, Lindsay Perryman, one of several witnesses who recognized the alleged victim. Along with Perryman, a handful of Ms. Landfair’s former classmates and longtime friends, plus an adult guardian, two of her former basketball coaches and a retired Chicago PD detective were all certain that Roshonda Landfair is the underage girl on the tape. But the jury was confused.

Following the script of so many previous sexual misconduct cases, the R. Kelly trial shifted away from the accused exploiter of teenage girls and onto those pointing the finger at him. The defense made a huge deal out of claiming that prosecution witness Lisa Van Allen (the woman who said she had threesomes with Kelly and a teenage Landfair) tried to shake Kelly down for big money in exchange for her silence. Jurors apparently fell for the defense argument that the case was “all about extortion” and factored that into their non-guilty verdict.

I don’t doubt that Van Allen may have tried to squeeze R. Kelly for money. Just like I don’t doubt that Kelly offered her $250,000 to recover a different sex tape. But even if Van Allen was an extortionist, what does that prove? That she was out to get him? Maybe. But it does not prove that of all those other witnesses were wrong. And it sure as heck doesn’t prove that Kelly is innocent.

According to the Associated Press, R. Kelly was “visibly stunned” when the not guilty verdicts were read. O.J. Simpson had the same look on his face when he got off. Michael Jackson may have had the look, too, but it seems that his face is no longer capable of registering visible expressions. Guilty people are often stunned when they get away with mess – especially when a convincing case has been built against them. Make no mistake, the case against R. Kelly is more than convincing and in the Court of Common Sense. He’s guilty as sin.

This is the same guy who settled three similar cases out of court, married a 15-year-old girl (Aaliyah) and was cold-busted with explicit photos of an underage girl on his still camera (that case didn’t reach Florida courts because an appeals court ruled that the search warrant the cops used when they found the pics was issued improperly).

But the Pied Piper will no doubt play on – in the studio, onstage and probably behind closed doors. His fans don’t care and the Hip Hop Nation will probably give Roshonda Landfair a merit badge for “not snitching.”

Cameron Turner is graduate of Stanford University whose editorials, entertainment news features and audio documentaries have appeared on national radio networks, online and in print for over 20 years.