(AllHipHop News) R. Kelly suffered another legal setback when a motion to dismiss his business manager from a Federal indictment was challenged by prosecutors.
R. Kelly’s business director Derrel McDavid was one of several associates of the disgraced singer who was charged in a thirteen-count indictment containing charges of various types of child exploitation and obstruction of justice.
Specifically, McDavid is implicated for assisting R. Kelly in covering up numerous crimes by hunting down videotapes the singer recorded of himself, having sexual intercourse with a number of underaged girls.
Unfortunately, R. Kelly was acquitted of 18 charges after his trial in 2008, because no one could identify the teenager or the “original” copy of the videotape.
But the Feds say the acquittal was a part of an intimidation campaign waged by R. Kelly and Derrel McDavid, who helped the crooner hide his sex crimes.
In a court filing, R. Kelly and McDavid argued the Feds would be unable to prove they engaged in a conspiracy at trial. They also claimed the statute of limitations had run out to even charge them with a crime.
A judge has weighed in and found that both R. Kelly and Derrel McDavid committed crimes as late as 2015, also puts them within a five-year statute of limitations for “hush-money payments,” including a $100,000 payment to a victim in December of 2015.
“In other words, and as relevant for the motion to dismiss, the indictment alleges that, as late as December 2015, Kelly paid McDavid so that McDavid would conceal the existence of videotapes that showed Kelly sexually abusing a young girl,” said lead U.S. Prosecutor John R. Lausch Jr.
“Because the indictment properly alleges a conspiracy, and because the indictment alleges that overt acts in furtherance of the conspiracy were committed within the last five years, the motion to dismiss should be denied,” John R. Lausch Jr. wrote to the Honorable Harry D. Leinenweber.
