R. Kelly’s Associate Suggested Singer’s Ex Be Killed Over Tapes, Ex Testifies
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Chicago, IL — Lisa Van Allen, one of R. Kelly’s former girlfriends who became romantically involved with the singer in 1998, testified on Thursday that she was told by one of the singer’s associates that they should’ve killed her over a sex tape she took from Kelly. Van Allen was the latest to testify in the federal child pornography trial against Kelly and two associates, Derrel McDavid and Milton “June” Brown at Dirksen U.S. courthouse.
“They should have murked me from the beginning,” Van Allen claimed Kelly’s former business manager McDavid told her after she had taken a tape allegedly depicting sexual acts between her, Kelly, and his underage goddaughter “Jane.” She explained she believed “murked” meant “they were thinking of killing me” she said as she sobbed during her emotional testimony.
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Van Allen said that she first met and began a relationship with Kelly when she thought she was aged 17 in 1998, a claim she made elsewhere, including during Kelly’s 2008 trial where she testified and also during the docuseries Surviving R. Kelly. On Thursday, she acknowledged she was actually 18 years old when they met.
Soon after they met, she said Kelly asked her to participate in three sexual encounters with Jane, whom Van Allen claims Kelly said was a “neighbor” and aged 16 at the time of their first threesome, which Van Allen said Kelly filmed via a camcorder. Their second encounter brought Van Allen to tears because she “didn’t want to do it.” Their third threesome, around 2000, was interrupted by several of Kelly’s staff, she testifed; Kelly told Jane to hide in the bathroom.
Van Allen testified that she discovered Jane was actually 14 when they first met after Jane told her in 2000 that she was turning 16 and Kelly was buying her a car for her birthday. She said the information fueled her not wanting to participate in any further sex acts with Jane. “I didn’t want to do the first ones,” she said. “But I definitely didn’t want more encounters” after she discovered Jane’s age.
Van Allen said Kelly would carry multiple sex tapes around in a gym bag, and one day around 2000 she was left alone with the bag in Kelly’s recording studio. She watched through some of the tapes to find the ones in which she appeared. “I was looking for the tape of the threesomes specifically,” she explained tearfully. She said the one she found and took featured three video clips: the first two featured Kelly with Jane alone, and the last one featured a threesome between her, Kelly, and Jane.
She said she gave the tape to her friend Keith Murrell for safekeeping. In 2007, around the time Kelly was preparing to go on trial for a similar tape, she had heard the tape she had taken may be coming up for sale. She said she contacted Kelly to help her retrieve the tape. She testified that he said he’d give her $250,000 “to disperse” if she could get the tape back and “to deal with Darrel McDavid from this point forward.”
She and Murrell turned the tape in to Kelly’s people, were paid money after its return, and were asked by former late R. Kelly attorney Ed Genson to submit to polygraph tests in connection with the tapes. Having failed her third polygraph test, she said McDavid made the comment that she should’ve been “murked.”
Beau Brindley, one of McDavid’s attorneys, blasted Van Allen during cross examination, where he pointed out the discrepancies between Thursday’s testimony and other statements she previously made under oath. He illustrated the alleged times she claimed McDavid had been with her to watch the tape she took, claiming she was inconsistent in the location of their meetings. He further questioned why she didn’t attempt to destroy the tape, positing that she appeared to want to make money from it. Brindley noted that she had said during her 2008 trial testimony that “I’ve never seen a tape with just Robert and ‘Jane’” in it, when she now claimed that the tape she took featured two scenes with them alone.
Brindley suggested that the tape did not include “Jane” at all, and instead contained a threesome between Kelly, Van Allen, and Kelly’s wife, which Van Allen refuted.
Brindley then questioned Van Allen’s claims that she was aged 17 when she met Kelly. In fact, Van Allen admitted she was actually 18 when she met Kelly during her testimony on Thursday. Brindley suggested she lied about her age “to be a victim” and to “sell books.”
Thursday also featured polygrapher and attorney Lawrence Beaumont, who discussed the results of the polygraph tests Van Allen and Murrell took. There was also a brief cross examination from Brown’s attorney who worked to establish that Brown was not involved nor knew about the reported deals taking place surrounding the tape. “He was not there,” Van Allen said when asked if Brown attended any of the meetings or witnessed any of the alleged threats that took place during the encounters Van Allen discussed during Thursday’s testimony.
The trial, which began last week, is slated to conclude within a month, with testimony from more alleged underage victims expected in the coming days.
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