Prosecutors will have to clear a series of high legal hurdles if they intend to charge R. Kelly and convict him, even if there's video evidence.
One case illustrates the difficulties: The R&B star's own 2008 trial at which he was acquitted. At the heart of that child pornography trial was a VHS recording that prosecutors said showed Kelly, in his 30s at the time, having sex with a girl as young as 13 sometime between 1998 and 2000.
Speculation that Kelly, now 52, could face new charges arose after attorney Michael Avenatti said he recently gave prosecutors a VHS tape of Kelly having sex with an underage girl, although it's not clear when it allegedly was recorded.
The office of Cook County State's Attorney Kim Foxx hasn't commented about whether a grand jury has convened to consider charges against Kelly. But Foxx may feel emboldened to bring new charges in the #MeToo era, said one legal scholar.
"Because they couldn't get the conviction in 2008, the state's attorney's office may feel justice wasn't done and they may want to take another stab at it," said DePaul University College of Law professor Monu Bedi, who teaches criminal law and procedure and has followed the Kelly case closely.
Kelly's attorney, Steve Greenberg, has said his client "never knowingly had sex with an underage woman."
"If R. Kelly is charged with anything, we will address it in court. I am confident he will leave through the front door," Greenberg told The Associated Press.
Prosecutors in 2008 played the 27-minute VHS tape — entered as "People's Exhibit No. 1" — nearly every day for jurors during the monthlong trial. In it, a man has sex with a young female, who is not wearing any clothes for most of the recording. He speaks to her in a hushed voice, and she calls him "Daddy."
But in the end, jurors took just seven hours to deliberate before acquitting Kelly on all 14 child pornography counts. As the verdict was read aloud, tears streamed down Kelly's face.
"Thank you, Jesus," the singer said over and over in a soft voice.
Afterward, lead trial prosecutor Shauna Boliker told reporters the acquittal "shows the world how difficult this crime is to prosecute."
Prosecutors didn't explain in 2008 why they chose not to charge and try Kelly for sexual assault, though legal experts said it almost certainly had to do with the alleged victim's unwillingness to testify. Child pornography is, or should have been, easier to prove without a cooperating victim.
If prosecutors now hope to charge Kelly anew, determining the time of any alleged crime will be crucial. That the tape handed over to prosecutors recently was recorded in VHS format suggests the incident also dates to around or before 2000.
Illinois legislators in 2017 erased time limits for charging sexual assault of children and it unambiguously applies to any sexual assault that happened anytime since 2017. But if a sexual assault case under the previous 20-year charging window was viable at the time of the 2017 amendment, Bedi said that an older sexual assault can be prosecuted at any time — years or even decades from now.
So, the critical question is whether any sexual assault of a child allegedly by Kelly occurred within the 20-year span before the 2017 amendment, Bedi said. Also working in prosecutors' favor is that they have 20 years from when the victim turns 18, not 20 years from the day the child was victimized, Bedi said.
Kelly's across-the-board acquittal in 2008 stunned many legal observers, and a future Kelly trial team may try to use similar defense strategies.
Defense lawyers in 2008 focused on Kelly's insistence that the man in the video was not him. They showed jurors that Kelly has a large mole on his back, but played excerpts of the video in which a mole was not visible on the man appearing on the screen. Prosecutors used different excerpts to show a dark spot was visible.
One of Kelly's attorneys, Sam Adam Jr., told jurors during closings there was no mole on Kelly's back and that meant one thing: "It ain't him. And if it ain't him, you can't convict."
Defense attorneys even suggested the video footage could have all been computer-generated to make the man look like Kelly.
One reason child pornography and child sexual abuse cases are difficult is that the accusers find it traumatizing to recount what happened to them. The situation can be more intense if the setting is a high-profile trial involving a celebrity defendant.
In the 2008 trial, Kelly's alleged victim, who by then was around 23 years old, did not testify. She denied before trial that she was on the video. Instead, prosecutors relied on friends of hers and four relatives to identify her as the girl in the video.
Prosecutors also called on Kelly acquaintances who said the man in the video was clearly Kelly.
Jurors who spoke to reporters after the trial ended said they had difficulty convicting someone when the alleged victim didn't testify. One said he wasn't convinced the girl was a minor when the tape was made. Another said jurors had reasonable doubts about the identity of the people in the video.
"You want to be 100 percent sure it's Kelly and (the alleged victim)," one juror said. "What we had wasn't enough."
Follow Michael Tarm on Twitter at http://twitter.com/mtarm
LAS VEGAS (AP) — A $12 billion passenger bullet train linking Las Vegas and the Los Angeles area was dubbed the first true high-speed rail line in the nation on Monday, with the private company building it predicting millions of ticket-buyers will be boarding trains by 2028.
“People have been dreaming of high-speed rail in America for decades,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg before taking a stage with union representatives and company officials at the future site of a terminal to be built just south of the Las Vegas Strip. “It’s really happening this time."
Buttigieg cited Biden administration support for the project that he said will bring thousands of union jobs, boost local economies and cut traffic and air pollution.
Brightline West, whose sister company already operates a fast train between Miami and Orlando in Florida, aims to lay 218 miles (351 kilometers) of new track almost all in the median of Interstate 15 between Las Vegas and Rancho Cucamonga, California. It would link there with a commuter rail connection to downtown Los Angeles. A station also is planned in San Bernardino County’s Victorville area.
Company officials say the goal is to have trains exceeding speeds of 186 mph (300 kph) — comparable to Japan’s Shinkansen bullet trains — operating in time for the Summer Olympics in Los Angeles in 2028.
“I believe we’ll look back at today and say, ’This was the birth of an industry of high-speed rail,'” Brightline Holdings founder Wes Edens said Monday.
The company aims to link U.S. cities that are too near each other for air travel to make sense and too far for people to drive.
Las Vegas has no Amtrak service. The idea of a bullet train to Los Angeles dates back decades under various names including DesertXpress. Brightline West acquired the project in 2019, and company and public officials say it has all required right-of-way and environmental approvals, along with labor agreements.
Brightline received Biden administration backing including a $3 billion grant from federal infrastructure funds and recent approval to sell another $2.5 billion in tax-exempt bonds. The company won federal authorization in 2020 to sell $1 billion in similar bonds.
Brightline West says electric-powered trains will cut the four-hour trip across the Mojave Desert to a little more than two hours. It projects 11 million one-way passengers per year, with fares that Edens said will be comparable to airline ticket costs. The trains will offer rest rooms, Wi-Fi, food and beverage sales and the option to check luggage.
Officials hope the train line will relieve congestion on I-15, where drivers often sit in miles of crawling traffic while returning home to Southern California from a Las Vegas weekend. An average of more than 44,000 automobiles per day crossed the California-Nevada state line on I-15 in 2023, according to Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority data.
Florida-based Brightline Holdings' Miami-line debuted in 2018 and expanded service to Orlando International Airport last September with trains reaching speeds up to 125 mph (200 kph). It offers 16 round-trips per day with one-way tickets for the 235-mile (378-kilometer) distance costing about $80.
Other fast trains in the U.S. include Amtrak’s Acela, which can top 150 mph (241 kph) between Boston and Washington, D.C. But fast train connections for other U.S. cities have been floated, including Dallas to Houston; Atlanta to Charlotte, North Carolina; Chicago to St. Louis; and Seattle to Portland, Oregon. Most have faced delays.
In California, a proposed 500-mile (805-kilometer) rail line linking Los Angeles and San Francisco was approved by voters in 2008, but has been beset by rising costs and routing disputes. A 2022 business plan by the California High-Speed Rail Authority projected the cost had more than tripled to $105 billion.
The Las Vegas strip is shown behind the groundbreaking sight of a high-speed passenger rail line between Las Vegas and the Los Angeles on Monday, April 22, 2024, in Las Vegas. A $12 billion high-speed passenger rail line between Las Vegas and the Los Angeles area has started construction. (AP Photo/Ty ONeil)
CORRECTS TO SEN. CATHERINE CORTEZ MASTO Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., speaks at the groundbreaking for a high-speed passenger rail on Monday, April 22, 2024, in Las Vegas. A $12 billion high-speed passenger rail line between Las Vegas and the Los Angeles area has started construction. (AP Photo/Ty ONeil)
Kids play in confetti at the groundbreaking ceremony for a high-speed railway on Monday, April 22, 2024, in Las Vegas. A $12 billion high-speed passenger rail line between Las Vegas and the Los Angeles area has started construction. (AP Photo/Ty ONeil) (AP Photo/Ty ONeil)
U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg speaks at the groundbreaking for a high-speed passenger rail on Monday, April 22, 2024, in Las Vegas. A $12 billion high-speed passenger rail line between Las Vegas and the Los Angeles area has started construction. (AP Photo/Ty ONeil)
A plane takes off behind a groundbreaking for a high-speed passenger rail on Monday, April 22, 2024, in Las Vegas. A $12 billion high-speed passenger rail line between Las Vegas and the Los Angeles area has started construction. (AP Photo/Ty ONeil)
Sen. Jacky Rosen, D-Nev., speaks at the groundbreaking for a high-speed passenger rail on Monday, April 22, 2024, in Las Vegas. A $12 billion high-speed passenger rail line between Las Vegas and the Los Angeles area has started construction. (AP Photo/Ty ONeil)
Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., left, and Sen. Jacky Rosend, D-Nev., right, speak at the groundbreaking for a high-speed passenger rail on Monday, April 22, 2024, in Las Vegas. A $12 billion high-speed passenger rail line between Las Vegas and the Los Angeles area has started construction. (AP Photo/Ty ONeil)
Nevada Governor Joe Lombardo leaves the stage at a groundbreaking for a high-speed passenger rail on Monday, April 22, 2024, in Las Vegas. A $12 billion high-speed passenger rail line between Las Vegas and the Los Angeles area has started construction. (AP Photo/Ty ONeil)
U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, center, Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, right, drive rail spikes into a symbolic rail, on Monday, April 22, 2024, in Las Vegas. A $12 billion high-speed passenger rail line between Las Vegas and the Los Angeles area has started construction. (AP Photo/Ty ONeil)
FILE - This photo taken Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2012, shows the site of a proposed station for a high-speed rail line to Las Vegas, background, at the end of the Dale Evans Parkway exit from Interstate 15, on the far outskirts of the Mojave Desert city of Victorville, Calif. Brightline West and U.S. transportation secretary and other officials projecting that millions of ticket-buyers will be boarding trains by 2028. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon)
FILE - This photo Jan. 25, 2012, photo shows the site of a proposed station for a high-speed rail line to Las Vegas, foreground, with Interstate 15 in the background, on the far outskirts of Victorville, Calif., the Mojave Desert city on the route from Los Angeles to Las Vegas. Brightline West and U.S. transportation secretary and other officials projecting that millions of ticket-buyers will be boarding trains by 2028. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon)
This Jan. 25, 2012, photo shows the site of a proposed station for the high-speed rail line to Las Vegas at the end of the Dale Evans Parkway exit from Interstate 15, on the far outskirts of the Mojave Desert city of Victorville, Calif. Brightline West and U.S. transportation secretary and other officials projecting that millions of ticket-buyers will be boarding trains by 2028. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon)
FILE - A Brightline train is shown at a station in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., on Jan. 11, 2018. A fast-tracked plan to build a high-speed passenger rail line between Las Vegas and the Los Angeles area is set to mark the start of construction. Brightline West and U.S. transportation secretary and other officials projecting that millions of ticket-buyers will be boarding trains by 2028. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee, File)
