Judge Allows R. Kelly Sex Tape To Go Public

The Associated Press reports that a Chicago judge is allowing the public and media to view the videotape that prosecutors say shows R. Kelly having sex with an underage girl.

Judge Vincent Gaughan said Thursday that he saw no overarching interest in banning the tape, which law enforcement officials allege proves their case against the singer, from public view.

"This is the whole crux and linchpin of the case. If there was no tape, we wouldn't have a case," Gaughan said.

Kelly has pleaded not guilty to 14 counts of child pornography. Prosecutors claim the tape was made shot between January 1998 and October 2000, when the girl may have been as young as 13.

Both the defense and prosecution had asked Gaughan to limit video viewing to only jurors, the lawyers and the judge himself. The video, they say, is lewd enough to seriously embarrass the girl, now 21. Prosecutors say they do not plan to call the girl as a witness. A trial date has not been set.

Allegations of Kelly's sexual activity with underage girls go as far back as 1991, when several claimed to have had sex with him. However, none of the those reports reached the publicity of the 2002 release of this tape, in which Kelly urinates on the girl and allegedly commits numerous other sexual acts. That's real classy, R. Enjoy prison.