Withering cross-examination begins for alleged R. Kelly fixer paid to recover sex tapes

CHICAGO — On Tuesday, Charles Freeman told a wild tale to jurors about how R. Kelly and his associates allegedly agreed to pay him up to a million dollars in the early 2000s to hunt down videotapes of the R&B singer sexually assaulting a young teen girl.

But that account came under withering scrutiny within minutes of cross-examination beginning Wednesday, with an attorney for Kelly’s co-defendant Derrel McDavid painting Freeman as a liar and opportunist who has given varying contradicting accounts about the conspiracy over the years.

“People who lie, people who cheat, people who take advantage of others for money, those are people whose word is hard to trust, agreed?” Brindley asked pointedly at the outset of his questioning, his hands folded somberly in front of him.

Freeman said, “Agreed.”

Brindley spent nearly