The prosecution in the child pornography trial of R Kelly today (June 2) rested their case with the tearful testimony of a woman who claims she had sex with Kelly and the young victim at the centre of the case.
Lisa Van Allen, 27, told the court that she participated in three-way sex encounters with Kelly at various locations including a basketball court, and in a trailer during the making of one of his music videos.
Van Allen said that the singer frequently filmed his trysts, and would carry around a duffel bag filled with video tapes of his encounters. She said that last year Kelly offered her $250,000 for a tape in which she featured.
She denied trying to extort money from the singer but admitted to once stealing a watch from his hotel room.
"Van Allen is an admitted thief and liar who wouldn't know the truth if she tripped over it," Kelly's business manager, Derrel McDavid, said in a statement reports the Associated Press.
The witness says she first started having sex with Kelly in 1998 when she was 18, and when the unidentified girl in the video was 14. She said Kelly told her the victim was 16, still under the age of consent in Illinois.
She said she cried the second time she had sex with Kelly on a private basketball court, and that he left the room with the video camera right away. She said he told her the crying ruined the footage.
She last had sex with Kelly and the other girl in 2000 during a video shoot, and described a moment when the alleged victim ran to the bathroom naked after someone came to the trailer door, as Kelly did not want anyone to see her there.
After Kelly asked for the video last year, she said he paid $20,000 after it was handed over in a hotel room in Chicago.
Defense attorney Sam Adam Sr. accused Van Allen of testifying in order to strike a deal with prosecutors, to help get a reduced sentence in a weapons case for a man with whom she lives.
The defense will begin presenting their case on Wednesday.
--By our New York staff.
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