The Chicago Sun-Times has part of the answer. In recent weeks the judge in the case has taken to holding all hearings in secret and gagging both sides’ lawyer in an attempt to not taint the jury pool. Says the S-T:

Prosecutors in the upcoming R. Kelly child pornography trial want to introduce evidence of other crimes allegedly committed by the R&B singer, court records show.

[…]

 

Prosecutors filed a motion April 1 to allow evidence of other crimes, according to the case’s docket sheet.

The motion appears to have been the subject of a two-hour, closed-door hearing Friday before Judge Vincent Gaughan.

Kelly’s going on trial May 9, five years after a videotape was found of him doing various disgusting things with and on a girl who police says was 13 or 14 at the time.

The story doesn’t say what the alleged “other crimes” might be, though they would presumably have something to do with nearly a dozen other child sex allegations that have cropped up against him.

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Previously in Hitsville:

R. Kelly Sexfacts™, Complete: The Director’s Cut