New motion in R. Kelly case claims deceptive practices by former lead prosecutor
CHICAGO (CBS) -- With the Chicago federal trial for R. Kelly and two of his associates set to begin in less than two weeks, attorneys for one of the defendants – Derrel McDavid – filed a bizarre motion in court Wednesday.
As CBS 2 Investigator Megan Hickey reported, the attorneys are claiming the former lead prosecutor used a burner email address and fake name to communicate with a potential witness.
The motion filed Wednesday morning claims that Assistant United States Attorney Angel Krull used the name "Demetrius Slovenski" and a private Gmail account when communicating with Jim DeRogatis, the journalist who first broke the story decades ago that R. Kelly was allegedly sexually abusing underage girls.
But DeRogatis said nothing improper happened.
The motion was filed in U.S. District Court by McDavid's attorneys. McDavid is R. Kelly's former business manager, and he has been charged with helping cover up Kelly's alleged crimes against young girls.
The attorneys say it wasn't until this week that they were made aware of communications between Krull, the former lead prosecutor on this case, and DeRogatis.
According to charging documents, AUSA Krull called herself "Demetrius Slovenski" and "created the email account with the username piedpiper312."
The conversations took place in April 2019, which was before the indictment in the Chicago federal case.
"Megan, I have never shared anything with anyone - prosecutors or defense attorneys or sources - that hasn't already been published," DeRogatis told Hickey on Wednesday.
The motion calls DeRogatis a "potential witness" because of his direct involvement in the 2002 R. Kelly investigation.
"I've gotten so many calls texts emails dating back to the anonymous facts that launched this story in November 2000," DeRogatis said.
DeRogatis confirmed that Krull used that fake name and private email. He said his book, "Soulless: The Case Against R. Kelly," was a few weeks from publication at the time.
He has no indication that he will be called as a witness in the upcoming Chicago trial, and a court spokesperson said Krull left the U.S. Attorney's office in 2020 and is no longer associated with this case.
"The fact that this information was known to the government for years and only disclosed to the defense less than two weeks before the trial creates — at the very least — the appearance of impropriety, which needs to be investigated," wrote Beau B. Brindley and Vadim A. Glozman, attorneys for McDavid.
DeRogatis doesn't believe the filing should have much of an impact. He compared the latest filing to similar claims by the defense in Kelly's 2008 child pornography trial in Cook County Criminal Court – in which he was acquitted.
"I don't think it means anything. I think, just like in 2008, the defense is trying to say there was this vast conspiracy against Robert S. Kelly," DeRogatis said. "Robert Kelly is convicted because of what Robert Kelly did."
We reached out to the U.S. Attorney's office for comment on the former prosecutor's use of a fake name and private email. A spokesperson declined to comment at this time, saying that they will be filing a written response with the court by the end of the week.
Attempts to reach Krull were not successful.
Kelly was sentenced in June to 30 years in prison in a federal sex trafficking case out of New York. He is now being held back at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in downtown Chicago, and is scheduled to go on trial again starting Aug. 15 at the Dirksen Federal Courthouse, on child pornography and obstruction of justice charges.
The federal charges against Kelly in Chicago accuse him of videotaping himself having sex with underage girls, and paying hush money and intimidating witnesses to cover up his crimes and rig his 2008 child pornography case in Cook County.
Kelly also faces multiple sexual assault and sexual abuse charges in Cook County. The first of those trials has been delayed multiple times due to the pandemic, and has yet to be scheduled.