R. Kelly, Jackson Cases Reflect Victim Bias

May 20, 2004 -- Given the criminal charges against them, the careers of both R. Kelly and Michael Jackson should both be on life-support. So why is Kelly still able to fly?

In an alleged child molestation case involving a now-14-year-old boy, Jackson, 45, faces 10 charges that include: felony conspiracy, committing lewd acts upon a child, attempting to commit a lewd act, and administrating an intoxicating agent to a child. Kelly faces child pornography charges in Illinois, and the tape at the center of the case allegedly shows the 37-year-old singer having sex with a female who, according to Chicago police, was 14 at the time.

Kelly — whose birth name is Robert Sylvester Kelly — originally faced 21 charges in the case but prosecutors dropped seven counts of soliciting a minor to appear in a pornographic video. Kelly had also faced multiple child porn counts in Florida for photos allegedly showing him having sex with the same underage girl.

But a judge threw out that case in March when he found that investigators had illegally seized the material from Kelly's home. Before his most recent scandals, Kelly also had settled two lawsuits from women who claimed he had coerced them into sex when they were underage, but maintained his innocence.

Both Jackson and Kelly have pleaded innocent in their cases and denied any wrongdoing. These scandals could have ruined the careers of both performers, but they haven't. Only Jackson's career has suffered, while Kelly's continues to soar.

‘Acceptable’ Victims?

So why has Kelly appeared to shrug off scandal? The answer, in part, may lie in his alleged victims and the way sex-crime victims are sometimes perceived. A sex crime involving a male alleged perpetrator and a female — especially if the victim is a teenager, not a younger child — may be seen as more "acceptable" than a man-on-boy case.

"Unlike Jackson, the alleged victims R. Kelly is accused of taping sex acts with have all been underage teenage girls," said Ronald Carlson, professor of law at the University of Georgia. "Whereas with Jackson, his charges have only involved young boys. In the public's mind, there may be less of a level of opprobrium to the former [Kelly's case] as opposed to the latter [Jackson's case]."

Sales for Jackson's greatest-hits collection Number Ones — which was released in November, when he was first charged in the case — have been disappointing and reflect years of decline since he was first accused of child molestation by another boy in 1993. (Jackson was never charged in that case. Prosecutors did not pursue charges against him after the alleged victim refused to testify.)

Meanwhile, Kelly's work has continued to break the Billboard Top 20. He has released two albums that have gone multiplatinum and a third, a double CD entitled Happy People/U Saved Me, is expected this summer.

Last year, Kelly performed for U.S. troops stationed in Iraq — and there was no public outrage. He was even nominated for an NAACP image award in January, which did raise eyebrows and sparked some criticism.

Role Reversal: The Groupie Factor

Arguably, alleged female sex-crime victims are subject to greater scrutiny.

Defense attorneys for NBA superstar Kobe Bryant have spent months putting the sexual and medical history of the 19-year-old college student who has accused him of rape under a very public microscope.

Bryant says the two had consensual sex last June while he was staying at a Vail, Colo., hotel resort where the woman worked. His lawyers have claimed the alleged victim had multiple sex partners in the days leading up to the encounter with Bryant, and that injuries uncovered during a medical exam could have been caused by these other partners. Before the presiding judge barred defense access to the woman's medical records, testimony in several preliminary hearings focused on her alleged suicide attempts and alleged prescription drug use.

Fame and celebrity can turn alleged victims into alleged predators, and vice versa, in criminal cases. Though they are criminal defendants, both Bryant and R. Kelly may be perceived as victims of groupie culture.

Young women — older and underage alike — throw themselves at these stars with visions of celebrity conquest, entrapment and dollar bills dancing in their heads, loyal fans of both men would say. Sometimes, celebrity and fan worship buries the gravity of a criminal accusation, especially if alleged victim is female.

"We've come a long way — and sexual assault on anyone is wrong — but women will always have their pasts questioned in sexual assault cases," said Harriet Salarno, president and chairwoman of Crime Victims United of California. "If she's a grown woman or a teenager, she somehow brought it upon herself or she had it coming. You don't hear much about male [sexual assault] victims, but they never undergo the scrutiny that females endure. Just like if you're a male and you have several girlfriends — you're a stud. But if you're a female, you're not looked upon so kindly."

Blaming the Parents

When the alleged victim is underage, critics will often channel some blame toward the parents.

Some reports and Michael Jackson supporters have suggested that the mother and other relatives of his alleged victim have coached the boy and are only out to get a financial settlement similar to the multimillion-dollar settlement in the first molestation scandal involving the "King of Pop." If Jackson is not guilty, then he is the victim of another kind of groupie-for-profit kind of culture — and his reputation may never recover from the stigma of a child molestation allegation.

Other critics have wondered why the boy's mother allowed him to spend so much time with Jackson, given the past allegations against the star.

"With young girls — and we've seen this in the Michael Jackson case, too — they place blame on the parents," Salarno said. "They ask things like, 'Well, how could you have allowed her to spend so much time with him?,' rather than focus on the seriousness of the act.

"They start questioning the parents' lifestyle," Salarno continued. "We saw that in the girl who was kidnapped and murdered in San Diego, Danielle van Dam."

A neighbor, David Westerfield, was convicted of first-degree murder in the kidnap-slaying of 7-year-old Danielle — but not before his defense thoroughly questioned the lifestyle of her parents. On the night of Danielle's disappearance, Westerfield said he had been hanging out with the girl's mother, Brenda van Dam, and her friends in a bar, where he allegedly was seen dancing with her while her husband stayed home.

Brenda van Dam denied dancing with Westerfield. However, she and and her husband both testified that they smoked marijuana the night Danielle disappeared, and had used drugs and swapped spouses for sex in the past. Westerfield's defense suggested — unsuccessfully — that the van Dams' lifestyle left Danielle vulnerable.

Forgiveness — for a Song

Still, sex allegations involving accused men and alleged male victims, particularly young boys, are sometimes perceived as more aberrant than those involving a males assaulting females. Conservatives who believe that homosexuality is aberrant — and abhorrent — behavior have used these crimes to further their own agenda.

But Michael Jackson's career stalled long before his current criminal case surfaced. The 1993 child molestation scandal has dogged him, even though he was never charged with a crime.

The "King of Pop" has become more like a court jester, a walking punch line, as he has denied having extensive plastic surgery, attributed his change in skin tone to the pigment disorder vitiligo, and often blamed his troubles on media gossip. Some fans may have grown tired of Jackson's eccentricities.

"With Jackson, you can say that his lyrics have generally generated a picture of wholesomeness," Carlson said. "And the public may see more of a sense of personal hypocrisy with him and the charges he faces. With R. Kelly, they may see the charges he faces as much more realistic."

And unlike Kelly, Jackson hasn't had a new hit song or album to distract the public. Sometimes artistic and mainstream success makes the public very forgiving. Director Roman Polanski pleaded guilty in 1979 to drugging a 13-year-old girl so he could have sex with her and then fled the country right before sentencing.

But when he won an Oscar in 2003 for his film The Pianist, he got a standing ovation from several people in the audience.

Album sales aside, Jackson will always have his fans, and they will continue to turn out in droves when he makes appearances at Santa Barbara, Calif., Superior Court in the months leading up to his trial.

Meanwhile, R. Kelly is still waiting for a firm trial date for his child porn case in Illinois. Only time will tell whether jurors will be as forgiving with both musical talents as their die-hard fans have been.