R. Kelly Wins One, Loses One

As has become custom in R. Kelly's kiddie porn case, the long-in-the-works trial has yet again been delayed.

In a hearing Friday, the presiding Chicago judge ruled that prosecutors must narrow their timeline for when the R&B star allegedly shot a now infamous 29-minute video of him having sex with a minor.

Kelly was not charged with statutory rape but is instead facing 14 counts of child pornography from the video sessions.

Cook County attorneys allege the crime was committed sometime between Nov. 1 1997, when the girl was 13, and Feb. 1, 2002, when she was 17.

After hearing pretrial motions from both sides, Judge Vincent Gaughan sided with the "Sex Me" singer's lawyer that the 51-month window was too broad a time frame for Kelly to account for his whereabouts.

"That's two million, two hundred and thirty thousand minutes and change," Gaughan said. "That has to be resolved."

The judge set a July 20 court date to make a final determination on the issue.

As a result, Kelly's trial--which was slated to get going later this month--likely won't kick off until fall at the earliest.

Defense attorney Ed Genson has previously argued that his superstar client was not the man shown having sexual intercourse with the girl on the tape. But it appears the main bone of contention over the current motion is when exactly the explicit footage was shot.

Kelly's legal eagle argued that such a wide time line makes it very difficult for his superstar client to present a credible alibi.

Not so, say prosecutors, who accuse the Grammy-winning star of using his fame and fortune to seduce underage girls.

"This issue is still on the table," Marcy Jensen, spokeswoman for Cook County Attorney's Office, told E! Online. "We don't think a 51-month window is an extraordinarily long time."

Jensen said that prosecutors based their arguments on a recent Illinois child abuse case in which an appellate court let stand a conviction that the crime had occurred within a 36-month time period.

"Our burden is to prove that it's him on the tape with the victim and that the victim is underage," she added.

Genson could not be reached for comment.

The 38-year-old Kelly appeared in court Friday, but he and his attorney declined to speak to reporters afterward.

If convicted on the child pornography charges, Kelly--who has pleaded innocent across the board--could face up to 15 years in state prison, a $100,000 fine and be forced to register as a sex offender.

While Kelly won one legal round last week, he suffered a setback in another case. A different Chicago judge ordered Kelly to give a deposition in a civil suit brought by a woman who claims the embattled entertainer violated her privacy by videotaping them having sex without her consent. Like the other tape, the graphic video at the heart of this case has been making the rounds on the Internet.

Kelly's camp asserts that the woman's complaint was filed after the statute of limitations had expired. His lawyers have also indicated that should he be deposed, he will likely take the Fifth, since he still has the criminal trial pending on unrelated child porn charges.

But the civil deposition isn't expected to occur until after the criminal case wraps up.

The legal developments come just as his latest album, TP.3 Reloaded, drops in stores Tuesday. The heavily hyped disc contains a controversial five-song cycle called "Trapped in the Closet," a sex-filled romp about adultery that takes a turn for the worse.

Kelly stars in a short film of the mini-musical that's included on a DVD accompanying the album and is in rotation on MTV and VH1. Considering his current legal woes, we're presuming the video was well vetted by the lawyers.