NEW YORK — A jury has been selected for the Chicago trial of Grammy Award winning R&B sensation R. Kelly after 6 years of delays. The author of such songs as the uplifting “I Believe I Can Fly” to the raunchier fare, “Bump N’ Grind”, is facing charges of child pornography after allegedly videotaping himself having sex with a 13 or 14-year-old girl.

The tape will be the key piece of evidence and shown in open court. But there’s a significant problem for the prosecutors — the girl believed to be on the video says it was not her. Also, defense attorneys have not even conceded yet that the man seen on the tape is Kelly. The singer’s wife, who he’s had three children with, doesn’t believe Kelly is the man on the tape at the center of the criminal charges. “C’mon,” she said during one interview. “Who would believe all that? That’s why they call them allegations.”

Regardless, other problems are surfacing for Kelly concerning a different sex tape and allegations that an aide to the star paid off a woman to get her to return the incriminating footage featuring Kelly. The aide, according to reports in the Chicago Sun-Times, claims she had a threesome with Kelly and the girl in the video for which he faces charges. Sources say she received immunity in exchange for her testimony. Facts have been difficult to nail down with a gag order in place and we don’t exactly know whether jurors will be able to hear about alleged sexual relations with other minors.

R. Kelly began raising eyebrows in 1994 when he married 15-year-old singer Aaliyah, the niece of his manager. The marriage was later annulled. In 1996, he was sued by a woman who claims she was 15 when Kelly had sex with her back in 1991. In 2001, he was sued by a former intern at Epic Records who claims she lost her virginity to Kelly at the age of 17. In 2002, he was sued by a Chicago woman who claims he impregnated her when she was underage and one of his associates took her to have an abortion.

Mr. Kelly has maintained his innocence concerning the current charges and was quoted last year in a hip-hop magazine saying, “I’m the Ali of today. I’m the Marvin Gaye of today. I’m the Bob Marley of today. I’m the Martin Luther King, or all the other greats that have come before us. And a lot of people are starting to realize that now.” We’ll see if a jury agrees. If convicted, one of urban music’s most popular performers could be singing the blues behind bars for up to 15 years.

–Bob Regan, In Session senior executive producer