Ex-employee reluctantly IDs Kelly, alleged victim on tape
Chicago Tribune / 5:21 PM CDT, May 27, 2008

It hardly mattered that Lindsey Perryman didn't want the two people in the R. Kelly sex tape to be the R&B singer and the alleged victim. She still identified them both in testimony Tuesday, her obvious regard for Kelly notwithstanding.

"I didn't want to think it was them," said Perryman, who worked for Kelly in various capacities on and off from 1999 to 2006. "I mean, I think so highly of Mr. Kelly and his family. They've been very, very good to me."

But like most of the other state's witnesses who have been marched up for identification purposes, Perryman said the facial features of the alleged victim stood out to her.

"She has distinct cheekbones, the way she moves her mouth and talks and smiles," she said. "It's very distinctive to her."

As for Kelly, her former employer, she said: "The image I saw looked exactly like Mr. Kelly."

Perryman's involvement in the case began in December, when she was contacted by Cook County prosecutor Shauna Boliker. A month later, Boliker showed Perryman a portion of the tape. At first, Perryman didn't identify either the alleged victim or Kelly, a point the defense took pains to note.

"I was in shock and I wanted to be 110 percent sure," she said of her reluctance to identify the parties.

That same month when she saw the tape again, she was "110 percent sure," she said.

Perryman, who described her relationship with Kelly as entirely professional, testified that she met the alleged victim in August 1999. Perryman was interning at Tracks Studio in Chicago and observed the alleged victim, her father, mother and younger brother enter the building. The alleged victim was carrying "a pillow and an overnight bag," she said.

Later, as a personal assistant for Kelly, Perryman would shuttle the alleged victim from her school to the studio, where she often did her homework. She also drove the alleged victim to her mother's office.

The alleged victim was introduced to her as Kelly's goddaughter, she said. In all that time, she testified, she never got the sense there was anything going on between the alleged victim and Kelly. In fact, she said, she never called police or spoke with law enforcement after the indictment against Kelly came down and she heard the allegations.

"He treated the people that worked with him extremely well," Perryman said. "There has never been any reason to walk away and say I would call the police."

Before Perryman's testimony, the defense tried to prevent her from identifying the parties, arguing that the time frame she knew the alleged victim and Kelly was after the prosecution says the tape was made. The judge denied the motion.

-- Azam Ahmed