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R. Kelly's Defense Attorney Took a Gamble, and It Paid Off
The National Law Journal
June 18, 2008
Criminal defense attorney Edward Genson, who led a team of four lawyers defending Grammy award-winning singer R. Kelly, took a major gamble at the end of the monthlong trial of the celebrity singer in Chicago, opting to hear the jury's verdict and waive an option of a mistrial.
The bet paid off when the jury found Kelly not guilty on all 14 counts of producing child pornography with a girl who the Cook County State's Attorney's Office alleged may have been 13 years old at the time a tape of them engaging in sexual acts was made.
"I didn't want a new trial," Genson said in an interview. "We felt we were doing so well. We didn't want to give up what we had."
They opted not to call for a mistrial even though at the end of the trial prosecutors admitted, without the jury present, that a DVD presented during the trial was not an exact copy of a videotape even though they earlier claimed that it was. Genson said that the video itself was also pivotal in the case.
"They claimed the lady on tape was a specific person, but when you saw the picture -- the contemporaneous picture of the person who they claimed was on the tape -- she just didn't look like the person on the tape," said Genson, of Genson & Gillespie.
Genson, 66, has been working on the case for six years, teaming with lawyers Marc Martin, a sole practitioner; Sam Adam Sr.; and Adam's son, Sam Adam Jr., for the trial. While the Adamses, of The Law Office of Sam Adam, were on the case at its beginning, they had dropped out several years back.
They were rehired in February, just before the trial was to begin, after the death of another lawyer on the team, former Illinois appellate Judge R. Eugene Pincham. Genson has partnered with all of the lawyers for decades.
"This is the best team of lawyers ever worked with," Genson said. "It was really truly a team effort."
The junior Adam, who is 35 years old, took the spotlight when the defense team decided at the last minute that he would deliver closing arguments, partly because his age allowed him to connect better with a younger jury, Genson said.
"This is my case, it's been my case for six years," Genson said. "I gave up the closing because, given the composition of the jury, I thought Sam Adam Jr. would give the most effective closer."
While Genson isn't retiring yet despite such promises to his wife, he said he plans to take the summer off for trips to the Bahamas, Italy and New York. He declined to say how much he earned from the Kelly case. Genson has had four high-profile cases in the past five years, including the defense of media baron Conrad Black also in Chicago.
"I just want to relax for a bit," he said.
