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 advant...