Photo-illustration: iStockphoto, Getty Images
As the world awaits word of a verdict, there's yet more ridiculous drama in R. Kelly's gravely serious child-pornography trial as one sequestered juror had to be reprimanded by the judge following an outburst in a restaurant last night. "I've been waiting for fucking half an hour — how long do I have to wait?" the man told a waiter, reports the Chicago Sun-Times. "All I want is a couple of beers and a hamburger." He then hit the table with a bottle and told an attendant deputy, "You guys have been monitoring me all day so you know I'm not drunk." This morning, called before Judge Gaughan, the juror was laughing and said he'd been feeling claustrophobic at the time of his tantrum. "Why are you laughing," Gaughan asked. "Do you have a mental problem?" Apparently he did not, so he went back to deliberating. Additionally, another juror — a student at a culinary school — has asked to be excused, though it is not yet known if his request was hamburger-motivated.
This is not the first time Kelly's legal problems have included hamburgers; a 2005 lawsuit filed by tour partner Jay-Z alleged that Kelly had, without explanation, left a St. Louis concert early to serve drive-through customers at an area McDonald's.
Juror reprimanded by Judge Gaughan for dinner table outburst [Kelly Chronicles/Chicago Sun-Times]
Juror wants out of R. Kelly trial [Kelly Chronicles/Chicago Sun-Times]
Jay-Z: R. Kelly Is a Crying Little B*tch [Smoking Gun]
