R. Kelly trial: singer's lawyers question man who claims he was paid to find incriminating sex tapes
R. Kelly's federal trial in Chicago continued Wednesday, as defense attorneys questioned Charles Freeman, a former merchandising agent for R. Kelly, who has told jurors the singer and two Kelly associates agreed to pay him $1 million to find and recover videotapes showing the Kelly sexually assaulting a girl.
Freeman said Tuesday he first got a call from Kelly around January or February 2001, asking him to recover stolen tapes that Kelly had lost. He said he was told he would hear from McDavid and from Kelly's private investigator, Jack Paladino – and he claimed Paladino offered him a reward.
He later met them at a Kansas City hotel, and said he would charge $1 million, and after haggling at that and other meetings, Kelly and his associated ultimately agreed, but even after recovering the tape in Atlanta, and confirming it showed Kelly having sex with a "young lady," he still got into multiple disputes with Kelly and his associates about being paid for his work to get it, and ended up suing Kelly and two other associates. The suit was later settled.
Freeman was back on the witness stand on Wednesday, as defense attorneys spent the day poking holes in his testimony, pointing out inconsistencies with testimony he gave to a grand jury years ago.
Freeman is testifying under an immunity deal, since he not only knew about the nature of the sex tapes, but made copies of them to make sure he'd be paid for his efforts to recover them, holding on to those tapes for years.
Freeman has testified he started working with Kelly in the 1990s, doing the merchandising for the singer's concert tours. He said the two became friends before Kelly and his team enlisted him to track down missing tapes.
Two points the defense in this case drilled into: questioning why Freeman, a "t-shirt salesman," would be trusted by Kelly's team to recover sex tapes, implying he was the one who first reached out about them, something Freeman denied; and why a man referring to himself as a friend of Kelly's would extort him for money for years, something Freeman also denied.
Beau Brindley, the attorney for Kelly's former business manager, Derell McDavid, brought up discrepancies in the timeline of events in Freeman's testimony this week and the testimonies given to Cook County and federal grand juries in years past.
Brindley picked apart details given by Freeman about the tape, and conversations he had about it, the cross-examination growing heated at times.
At one point, when Freeman appeared to laugh, Brindley asked asking; "Is this funny? Are you having a good time?"
When Freeman said yes, Brindley replied by asking if Freeman was bothered at all that he held onto child porn, in reference to the copies he made, for 20 years.
Freeman said no.
When asked on Tuesday why he never called the police about the child porn he says he retrieved for Kelly and his team, Freeman said, "Because the police wasn't going to pay me one million dollars."
Pressed on that Wednesday, Freeman repeatedly brought up deals and contracts he made with Kelly's team, saying he was doing the job he was hired to do.
Later Wednesday, Kelly's lead defense attorney, Jennifer Bonjean, referred to Freeman's testimony as an "ever-changing story" - also pointing out discrepancies in what he's said on the record. She pressed him on the immunity deals he has been granted to testify in the case.
Bonjean asked, "Why would anyone need as many immunity deals as you have if you have been such a law-abiding citizen?"
Bonjean also asked Freeman about Kelly asking him to retrieve the tapes – characterizing Freeman as "a thief who did merchandising for him" and asking why Kelly would ask Freeman, of all people, to obtain the tapes.
Freeman denied being a thief, and said he did not know about the nature of the tapes when asked to find them.
In Bonjean's line of questioning, we also learned Freeman bought at least one sex tape involving Kelly while in California.
Kelly is on trial on a 13-count indictment, including child pornography and obstruction of justice charges. Two associates, McDavid and former assistant Milton Brown, are being tried alongside him.
The trial is expected to last four weeks, and prosecutors are expected to call from more women who accuse Kelly of sexually abusing them when they were girls.
Read more details on Wednesday's testimony below.
R. Kelly's defense attorney calls Charles Freeman liar, thief, extortionist
Kelly's lead defense attorney, Jennifer Bonjean, referred to Charles Freeman's testimony as an "ever-changing story" - also pointing out discrepancies in what he's said on the record. She pressed him on the immunity deals he has been granted to testify in the case.
Bonjean asked, "Why would anyone need as many immunity deals as you have if you have been such a law-abiding citizen?"
Bonjean also asked Freeman about Kelly asking him to retrieve the tapes – characterizing Freeman as "a thief who did merchandising for him" and asking why Kelly would ask Freeman, of all people, to obtain the tapes.
Freeman denied being a thief, and said he did not know about the nature of the tapes when asked to find them.
In Bonjean's line of questioning, we also learned Freeman bought at least one sex tape involving Kelly while in California.
When asked earlier this week why he never called the police about the sex tapes, Freeman said because the police weren't going to the pay him the $1 million Kelly's team promised.
Bonjean also brought up "Jane," the then-14-year-old girl who said she appeared on the sex tape with Kelly. She claimed Freeman called Jane in 2009.
Freeman said he did try to reach out to "Jane's people" and let them know about the tape. Bonjean said he arranged to speak to Jane's father, identified in court as "Brandon," first.
"So you're trying to get in touch with the primary witness," Bonjean asked, referring to Jane as primary witness in R. Kelly's 2008 child pornography trial at which he was acquitted, as well as the present trial.
Bonjean at one point also called Freeman a liar, a thief, and an extortionist.
Defense attorney questions Charles Freeman's account of request to retrieve second sex tape
During continued cross-examination from defense attorneys in the R. Kelly trial, defense attorneys kept hammering away at apparent inconsistencies in Charles Freeman's testimony about Kelly's team enlisting him to recover missing sex tapes.
On Tuesday, Freeman testified that after recovering a tape of Kelly having sex with a young girl from a home in Georgia, Kelly's then-business manager Derrel McDavid contacted him again to recover another tape, showing Kelly, his ex-girlfriend Lisa Van Allen, and the "young lady" from the earlier tape. Freeman said he told McDavid he would need another $1 million for the tape.
Freeman said he met with McDavid in Olympia Fields, and McDavid told him this second tape was in Kansas City. Freeman said he called some people from a specific group McDavid mentioned to ask about the tape – including his own friend Keith Murrell. He said he talked to Murrell, who confirmed Van Allen had mailed him a tape of the description McDavid had provided, and who said Van Allen "knew it was a young girl and didn't want it getting out there."
McDavid defense attorney Beau Brindley asked Freeman why Kelly's team would contact him again to recover the second tape, after he'd already been caught making secret copies of the first tape, and hounded them for money for it.
Brindley also asked, if Kelly's team was already dealing with Murrell, why would they turn to Freeman?
Freeman said Kelly's team couldn't get the second tape from Murrell, who denied having it, so they brought him in.
Brindley also confronted Freeman with his testimony that McDavid played a portion of the video that they wanted him to recover, noting in testimony years earlier before a grand jury, Freeman made no mention of McDavid being at that meeting.
Going to a later meeting Freeman has said he had with Kelly at his house in Olympia Fields, for further discussions about being paid for retrieving the tapes, Brindley attacked Freeman's account of McDavid asking everyone to take their clothes of and get in a nearby swimming pool to make sure no one was wearing a wire.
On Tuesday, Freeman testified he took off his shirt and kept his shorts on, while McDavid stripped to his underwear and got in the pool. He said McDavid assured him he would get the rest of his money. But Brindley pointed out Freeman told a Homeland Security agent who was later investigating the Kelly case that he only took of one shoe and put one foot in the water.
Defense attorneys attack Charles Freeman's inconsistent accounts of recovering Kelly sex tape
On Tuesday, Charles Freeman told the jury in R. Kelly's federal trial in Chicago that the singer and his associates hired him to track down incriminating videotapes allegedly showing Kelly sexually assaulting a girl, promising to pay him $1 million for his efforts.
Attorneys for one of Kelly's co-defendants on Wednesday sought to portray Freeman as a liar, grilling him about inconsistencies between his trial testimony and what he told federal and Cook County grand juries three years ago.
Beau Brindley, who represents former Kelly business manager Derrel McDavid, wasted no time attacking Freeman's credibility during a heated cross-examination
"It's difficult to trust the word of a person who lies?" Brindley asked early in his cross-examination.
Freeman agreed.
Brindley picked apart details given by Freeman about the tape, and conversations he had about it, the cross-examination growing heated at times.
At one point, when Freeman appeared to laugh, Brindley asked asking; "Is this funny? Are you having a good time?"
When Freeman said yes, Brindley replied by asking if Freeman was bothered at all that he held onto child porn, in reference to the copies he made, for 20 years.
Freeman said no.
While Freeman admitted he has lied multiple times about videotapes related to Kelly, he denied ever lying to criminal investigators or lying under oath.
Nonetheless, Brindley highlighted multiple inconsistencies in Freeman's accounts of how he was enlisted to locate missing sex tapes when Kelly was under investigation in the early 2000s for having sex with a 14-year-old girl.
While testifying before a Cook County grand jury in 2019, Freeman testified he learned where the missing tapes were located from Kelly's ex-girlfriend, Lisa Van Allen. Brindley noted Freeman told the jury during Kelly's trial on Tuesday that he had learned where the tape was and who had it from McDavid and private investigator Jack Paladino, making no mention of Van Allen.
Asked if he'd forgotten he'd called Van Allen, Freeman said no, but insisted he was not asked any specific questions about phone calls he'd made after talking to McDavid and Paladino.
Brindley also attacked Freeman's accounts of how he found a Kelly sex tape in Georgia.
Freeman testified Tuesday, that when he went to the house in Georgia, a woman who answered the door let him in, and pointed to a TV, where he found two tapes sitting on a stand and one leaning outside a VCR. He said he put the latter tape into the VCR to watch it, and upon seeing Kelly on the tape, he took it out of the VCR and grabbed it – along with the other two.
"You think the woman was there alone watching the child porn?" Brindley asked.
Freeman said that was none of his concern, and he "doesn't know how important it was to her."
Brindley noted Freeman told a Cook County grand jury he searched through several tapes in the house before finding one with Kelly's name on it, and the girl's first name.
Freeman said he left out details in his grand jury testimony, because he was not asked for details.
Brindley also tried to poke holes in Freeman's accounts of when he found out the tapes he was being asked to recover contained child pornography. Freeman testified Tuesday that he first realized it after finding the tape, and putting it in a VCR to see what was on it, and saw Kelly having sex with a young girl, but in previous accounts for a grand jury, he said Van Allen told him what was on the tape before he went to Georgia.
Going back to the contract with Jack Paladino to recover the tapes, Brindley noted Freeman testified on Tuesday he signed a contract before going to get the tapes, but told a grand jury in 2019 he signed the contract after he'd already retrieved the tapes, and swapped the original sex tape for a copy.
Nonetheless, Freeman maintained he's telling the truth, and denied any discrepancy, saying his grand jury affidavit was a "summary of what happened."
Freeman said he would not have gone out of town to "rob somebody of a video tape" without a contract, because "that's not me."
Brindley also suggested that it was Freeman who approached Kelly's team about tracking down the singer's missing sex tapes, questioning why a glorified "t-shirt salesman" would be entrusted by Kelly's team to recover the tapes, and suggesting Freeman "tried to shake down Mr. Kelly."
"After you tried to get this money from Robert Kelly, Derrel McDavid told you very explicitly, if it was up to him, you wouldn't get a dime?" Brindley said, also asking if McDavid called him a thief and a liar, and said he could "go f*** himself."
Freeman said McDavid never said any of that to him.
Later, Freeman admitted to lying to a polygraph examiner about making copies of the sex tape, when Kelly's team asked him to take a lie detector test about whether he'd done so.
Freeman said he lied to the polygraph examiner, McDavid, and Paladino about the copies he'd made of the tapes, and was told he passed the lie detector test.