Chicago Area Local News

CHICAGO (CBS) ― The wife of a Baptist preacher from R. Kelly's hometown, a business executive and a telecommunications company employee were the first three jurors chosen Monday for the R&B superstar's child pornography trial.

The executive, a middle-aged man, called child pornography "the lowest of the low" during questioning by the judge and attorneys. But he said he felt he could give a fair trial to the 41-year-old Kelly, who is accused of videotaping himself having sex with a girl as young as 13.

At one point, Cook County Circuit Judge Vincent Gaughan said nobody in the room condoned child pornography and Kelly appeared to nod his head in agreement.

Kelly, known for sexually charged hits like "Bump N' Grind," has pleaded not guilty. The alleged victim, now 23, says it wasn't her on the videotape.

The preacher's wife from Olympia Fields, where Kelly lives, said her religious beliefs would not affect her service as a juror. The judge reminded her that the trial involved "laws of man, not the laws of God," and she said she understood.

There is nothing routine about this trial, from the arrival of the celebrity defendant, to the questioning of jurors -- not in open court -- but in the judge's chambers, by defense attorneys who have a good idea who they want and who they don't.

"Not the young African American male and certainly not the young African American female," said Sun-Times columnist Mary Mitchell. "I think that would be a mistake on their part."

Mitchell is writing about the African American community's disdain for Kelly in Tuesday's Sun-Times.

"Professional people that I talk to, working class people that I talk to are appalled by the case and what the charges represent," she said.

No young jurors have been chosen. Jury consultant Sonya Hamlin, author of "What Makes Juries Listen Today," says young music fans could be Kelly's ideal jurors.

"They wouldn't necessarily come at the case from a law point of view, they'd look at this poor guy whose life is crazy, people throwing themselves at him, and find excuses and reasons to forgive him," Hamlin said.

Jury selection is understandably key for both prosecutors and defense attorneys, said Steve Cron, a defense lawyer from Santa Monica, Calif., who has practiced for 35 years.

"In a case where a celebrity has good and bad public images, it's critical," said Cron, who has no link to the Kelly case.

The alleged victim's denial that she is on the videotape will present prosecutors with a unique challenge once the trial is under way. And Kelly's lawyers -- including prominent Chicago attorney Ed Genson -- haven't admitted it's Kelly in the video.

Prosecutors say the videotape was made between Jan. 1, 1998, and Nov. 1 2000, and that the alleged victim was born in September 1984. Kelly was indicted on pornography charges June 5, 2002, after the tape surfaced.

If jurors find the Grammy-winning artist guilty, he could go to prison for up to 15 years.

On Friday, Gaughan acknowledged the attention given the case.

"As you know, this is a high-profile case," he said, according to court transcripts. "And if you don't know, God love you. You're probably the only person on earth that doesn't."

Kelly's lawyers had argued any jury pool has been irrevocably tainted because of pretrial publicity.

But Gaughan denied a defense motion to postpone the trial, which had already been delayed for six years, suggesting jury selection could weed out any tainted jurors.

Potential jurors who were dismissed included a man in his 50s who prosecutors said clearly was awestruck by Kelly's celebrity and a security guard who said Kelly would have "some explaining to do" if he was on the video.

Sixteen jurors, four of them alternates, are to be chosen for the trial. Court officials have said questioning and selection from the 150 potential jurors is expected to take about a week.

When Gaughan asked some potential jurors if they could give Kelly a fair trial, one man in his 30s turned to Kelly, sitting several feet away, and said he could. Kelly nodded and mouthed "all right."

At least one man also was asked if he'd be able to discuss sexually explicit matter with other jurors when it came time for deliberations.

Jurors waiting to be questioned passed time doing crosswords, reading or cat-napping.

Gaughan advised them earlier that when it came time for their questioning, "whatever answer you give is a good one...you just have to be candid."

No jurors came out of the afternoon session, when all seven people questioned were dismissed. In all, 13 potential jurors were let go Monday.

In the afternoon, a black woman in her 20s was dismissed for seeming starstruck after she described Kelly as a "musical genius" and as the "pied piper of R&B." She said she often gossiped about the case with her co-workers at a post office.

Among the others dismissed was a man in his 60s who said that the age of legal sexual consent is too high, suggesting that the appropriate age could be around puberty.

At one point, the defense objected to prosecutors striking two jurors, saying their motions seemed to target blacks. But Gaughan overruled the objections, saying the prosecution's motions appeared to be "race neutral."

Although Kelly won a Grammy in 1997 for the gospel-like song "I Believe I Can Fly," his biggest hits are bawdy ballads like "Ignition" and his current single, "Hair Braider." He is due to release a new album in July.

CBS 2 Chief Correspondent Jay Levine and the Associated Press contributed to this report.

(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)

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