Potential jurors who watched parts of Lifetime’s “Surviving R. Kelly” docuseries will not be barred from the jury pool at the disgraced R&B superstar’s Chicago trial set to kick off this week, a judge ruled Monday.
The convicted sex predator’s attorney, Jennifer Bonjean, had asked the judge to disqualify any potential jurors who watched the series, arguing they would not have the ability to separate the allegations in the documentary and the evidence presented at trial.
“No one, even a well-intentioned person, would be capable of purging his brain of information obtained through the docuseries or separating information learned from the documentary that was never subject to cross-examination from testimony introduced at trial on the same subject matter,” Bonjean wrote to Judge Harry Leinenweber in a letter filed Sunday.
She added that the 2019 docuseries features interviews with a number of witnesses who prosecutors intend to call at the trial, including Lisa Van Allen and Jerhonda Pace.
“There is substantial overlap between the subject matter of this prosecution and the subject matter of the documentary,” Bonjean wrote.
On Monday, Leinenweber denied the request, saying the series aired years ago and it wouldn’t make sense to bar someone if they had only seen part of the documentary, NBC News reported.
In the case brought by federal prosecutors in Illinois, Kelly is charged with a series of child pornograpy and other counts for sex abuse he allegedly carried out during his years as a premeire R&B superstar.
About 100 potential jurors filled out questionnaires last week in the first steps to establish the jury pool at a federal courthouse in the Windy City, the Chicago Tribune reported.
Jury selection in the case is expected to wrap up Tuesday.
In her motion, Bonjean said a number of potential panelists indicated they had seen “Surviving R. Kelly.”
“Some potential jurors who have seen the documentary have indicated that they are still capable of being impartial. This representation is in a word – absurd,” she wrote.
Kelly was sentenced to 30 years in prison in June after his conviction on nine counts, including racketeering, in Brooklyn federal court.
A host of victims testified at the 2021 trial, where prosecutors painted Kelly as a “predator” who preyed on his young fans and sexually abused them for decades.
