R Kelly Jury Includes Victim Of Sex Offences

The jury selection for the child pornography trial of R&B singer R Kelly finished last week, with the panel including a Baptist preacher's wife, a young woman who said she was once r-ped, and a business executive who said during jury selection he had believed Kelly was guilty.Prosecutors and defense attorneys accused each other of trying to stack the panel along racial lines throughout selection. Eight jurors are white and four are black.Cook County prosecutor Shauna Boliker has warned jurors this week that they would have to watch a videotape depicting an "underage child performing sex acts that you have never seen before"."A child doesn't choose to be violated and placed on a videotape, a videotape that will live on forever – long after this child becomes an adult," Boliker told jurors, as opening statements got under way in the singer's long-delayed trial.Kelly, 41, is accused of videotaping himself having sex with an underage girl, who prosecutors maintain was as young as 13 when the tape was made between January 1 1998, and November 1 2000.However, Kelly denies that he is the man on the tape, and the woman that prosecutors say was a minor at the time of the taping – she’s now 23 – denies that she is the girl in the footage.Defense attorneys may also contend the girl, whoever she was, wasn't a minor at all. The defense is led by Ed Genson, who is highly sought by defendants for his persuasive powers with jurorsThe trial has been delayed repeatedly since the tape was mailed to the Chicago Sun-Times in 2002. The newspaper turned it over to authorities, and Kelly was indicted later that year.Shauna Boliker, who is expected to take the lead for the prosecution, gave birth to her third child last year, which was one of the reasons for the delays in the trial so far. Among others were a case of appendicitis for Kelly and the judge's fall from a ladder.Boliker has prosecuted several high-profile cases, including that of a Catholic priest who pleaded guilty last year to abusing five boys.Despite intense media attention, Judge Vincent Gaughan has vowed not to let the trial sink into a “celebrity circus”, and has demanded the respect of reporters. He even held up a plastic bag during a hearing on Friday (May 16), saying it held pieces of chewed gum he had collected under the rows where they sat during jury selection.  "Don't stick gum on the benches," he said. "Actually, it's a crime." NEXT: Jessica Alba Marries PartnerPhoto courtesy of Jive.