There were plenty of surprises in prosecution’s case against R. Kelly. But will any spell acquittal?

CHICAGO — High-profile federal conspiracy trials like the one unfolding in Chicago against disgraced R&B singer R. Kelly don’t typically have many made-for-TV bombshells. By the time the curtain raises, evidentiary issues have largely been worked out. Prosecutors have put forth in detail what they expect their witnesses to say. Defense attorneys have raised their pretrial objections and counterpunch according to the judge’s rulings. But Kelly’s case hasn’t quite gone by that familiar script. Instead, there have been several surprises during the two weeks that prosecutors put on their case, whi...