Jury selection began Friday in the long-awaited child pornography trial of rhythm and blues superstar R. Kelly.
The Grammy-award winning artist, now 41, is accused of filming himself having sex with a girl as young as 13 some time between January 1, 1998, and November 1, 2000.
Both Kelly and the alleged victim, who is now 23, have denied that they are the people pictured in the home video, which was leaked to the Chicago Sun-Times in 2002 and later appeared on the Internet after the paper turned the video over to law enforcement.
Prosecutors will have to rely on the testimony of the alleged victim's friends and family to prove that she was indeed under the age of 18 at the time the video was made.
They are also expected to use expert testimony to explain why sexual abuse victims often deny they have been abused.
"When the person stands up there and says 'it's not me,' that's difficult to overcome," said Leonard Cavise, a DePaul University law professor.
"If she says it with any credibility, I can't imagine it won't be a source of reasonable doubt."
Robert Kelly faces up to 15 years in jail if convicted of the 14 charges of child pornography.
"R. Kelly is looking forward to his day in court and he is confident that when all the evidence comes out, he will be shown not to have committed any crime," spokeswoman Melissa Erickson told AFP.
The charges, and a series of scandals involving Kelly and underaged girls, seem to have had little impact on the Chicago-based singer, songwriter and producer's popularity.
He's sold more than 12 million records since he was arrested in June 2002, pumping out an album a year and collaborating with everyone from Celine Dion to Kid Rock.
Kelly, who grew up in the projects or public housing estates on the South Side of Chicago and scored a massive hit with his 1997 tune "I Believe I Can Fly," had three top ten hit singles last year.
He has not shied away from sexually charged lyrics in the wake of the controversy and his last major tour, in 2006, earned 8.3 million dollars.
"There's something about him and his music," said Gail Mitchell, senior R&B correspondent for Billboard Magazine.
"He has his finger on the pulse of what's going on, what hot melodies people are going to want to hear," she told AFP.
"It seems like people are able to divorce what he brings musically to what is going on personally."
Prosecutors are expected to introduce a woman who will testify that she engaged in three-way sex with Kelly and the alleged victim, and have also asked the judge to allow them to introduce what they say is evidence of the crooner's past crimes.
At least three other women have filed civil lawsuits alleging that Kelly had sex with them when they were under the legal age of consent. A fourth reached an out-of-court settlement. No criminal charges have resulted from the cases.
Kelly was arrested in Florida in 2003 on child pornography charges after police found a camera with photographs allegedly showing Kelly having sex with an underage girl. Those charges were dropped after a judge ruled the camera was illegally seized.
Kelly was also briefly married to his protege Aaliyah, tying the knot with the teen idol in 1994 when she was just 15.
The marriage was annulled by her parents and the Brooklyn-born songstress and actress died in a plane crash in the Bahamas in 2001.
