R Kelly Innocent on All Counts, Unsurprisingly

If you did like I did and actually take a day away from the computer or the television you may not have known any differently. But if you were at work browsing the news sites or you were passing by the cable news you would know by now that R Kelly was found innocent on all counts. Now typically, I would start out my news commentary stating the opposite, that you would have had to been hidden under a rock or something not to know what the breaking news of the day was. But this is a bit different; first off this was the news on the tip of everyone's tongue, that mental ribbon tied around everyone's fingers years ago.

The hard evidence the prosecution was supposed to present had surfaced way back in 2002. Back then, people were still reeling of the second time Michael Jackson had child molestation charges being brought about and did not necessarily want to hear about yet another celebrity nor wanted to hear about yet another celebrity taking advantage of a child. It wasn't a good time for anyone to be caught in those cross hairs of the public's animosity, least of all R Kelly, who had built his career on songs glorifying amoral behavior. For most it seemed to be an open and shut case, and it was just a matter of the trial actually coming about and once the evidence was presented clearly, R Kelly was going to not only be convicted of the charges being brought against him, but he would serve the maximum sentence and his career would have been an interesting part of history.

But years passed by and the trial had never occurred. It almost seemed as if it never would. What's worse is that just now, when everyone had all but forgotten about it, is when things really started to get interesting. There were ideas floating around about the premise that perhaps the tape was part of a larger ring, that it was being passed around and shown for entertainment, not unlike the infamous tape of a convenience store being robbed in the movie Menace to Society. Surely, if this was part of something bigger than just R Kelly and his own issues there is little room for anything but for him to be found guilty.

Then the doubts started to occur. First off the age of the girl at the time 13, when R Kelly would have been clearly in his thirties was morally reprehensible at best. But now ten years later, neither R Kelly or the girl testify at the trail, and both denied being on the tape. The star witness of the prosecution was a woman who claimed to have been in a three way with Kelly and the girl, but she is also portrayed as being someone who has it out for Kelly because she had her own personal retribution that drove her to testify against him in the first place.

Her accusations that R Kelly and her had three ways on a basketball court and that he carried around the tapes in a duffel bag certainly do sound like the arrogant persona that R Kelly has crafted out for himself through his songs and music videos. The prosecution had 22 witnesses, the defense only had 12. What is so damaging and self-incriminating about Lisa Van Allen's testimony is that she continued to tour with him, show up in his videos, and even went so far as to simulate sexual acts on stage in a concert back in 1998.

The premise that Kelly had not only took advantage of a 13 year old, but also went so far as to continue to do so with an 18 year old present is ludicrous, but then again, not so difficult to understand if you want to marry the persona that Kelly has crafted for himself with the behavior he was being charged with. Perhaps the prosecution simply did not have a solid case, particularly given that they had almost twice as many witnesses. The real issue for some may be that we have to endure more of R Kelly's tyranny over pop music, be it that he continued to record while this whole situation was going on though we may not have ever had any real choice in the matter ...