Feds in Chicago hit R. Kelly with fresh indictment

Federal prosecutors in Chicago delivered the latest twist in R. Kelly’s ongoing legal saga Friday with a fresh indictment that added a new victim to the set of allegations against him— but also removed another.

The superseding indictment against Kelly and co-defendants Derrel McDavid and Milton Brown offered little detail about the new alleged victim, who it says met Kelly in 1997 or 1998 at the age of 14 or 15.

It says Kelly “engaged in sexual contact and sexual acts” with that person and four others when they were under the age of 18. For the new victim, the alleged sexual activity took place between 1997 and 2000. But it no longer makes that claim about a sixth person who remains central to the obstruction of justice charge Kelly faces.

Previously identified in the old indictment as “Minor 2,” the person is now identified as “Individual D.” The facts in both indictments appear to match previous testimony of Lisa Van Allen, who has spoken publicly about her relationship with Kelly and became a key, if problematic, witness during Kelly’s 2008 child pornography trial.

Van Allen could not be reached for comment Friday.

Jeffrey Cramer, a former federal prosecutor, said the move could be a sign the feds felt uncomfortable presenting the person to a jury as a victim but still had corroborating evidence to put that person on the stand as a witness.

“The presentation of the evidence seems to have been tweaked a little bit, but the overall construction of the case remains the same,” said Cramer, managing director in Chicago of Berkeley Research Group.

Mike Leonard, one of Kelly’s defense attorneys, said the government “appears to continue to struggle with its underlying factual theory.”

“They have amended away a victim, changed the time period for counts, and changed the allegedly responsible entities in terms of forfeiture allegations,” Leonard said in an emailed statement. “Moreover, to date, they have failed to even identify to us the victim identified in (the) amended indictment — with a promise they will do so in the future.”

The new charges mean Kelly will be arraigned again at the Dirksen Federal Courthouse, though a date for that hearing had not been set as of Friday afternoon. It also means his federal trial in Chicago, now set for April, could be pushed back.

Since last summer, Kelly has been facing federal indictments in Chicago and Brooklyn, in addition to earlier local charges in Cook County and more recent charges in Minnesota. The federal case in Chicago alleges child pornography and obstruction of justice, while the feds in Brooklyn have alleged racketeering.

At the heart of the obstruction of justice charge Kelly faces in Chicago is the 2008 child pornography trial that ended in Kelly’s acquittal. The new indictment alleges that, in early 2007, Kelly and his manager, McDavid, agreed to pay “Individual D” $250,000 to return a videotape of Kelly having sex with that person and a minor.

It alleges Kelly and McDavid paid “Individual D” and another person $100,000 each to help recover such videotapes, and it says they made “Individual D” and others take lie-detector tests regarding whether they had returned all the copies.

Van Allen testified in 2008 that she met Kelly when she was 17 and had sex with Kelly and an underage girl central to that trial. She said that, in March 2007, Kelly flew her and her fiancé to Chicago and offered her $250,000 for a videotape of the trio having sex.

Jurors later said Van Allen, who stole a $20,000 watch from Kelly, was a poor witness. One juror said the jury discounted everything she said, while others said they considered her testimony only when others corroborated it.

Contributing: Sam Charles