Prince Andrew's legal team said Tuesday that a civil lawsuit alleging the senior British royal sexually abused Virginia Roberts Giuffre when she was 17 is baseless, and argued that legal papers in the case weren't served properly.Los Angeles attorney Andrew Brettler, who appeared virtually during a pre-trial teleconference in New York on behalf of Andrew on Monday, said the prince's legal team would challenge the validity of the lawsuit.Brettler referenced a settlement that Andrew's lawyers said Giuffre had previously entered, precluding her from pursuing litigation against anyone connected to convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein."We believe, however, that this is a baseless, non-viable and potentially unlawful lawsuit that plaintiff has filed against the Duke. There has been a settlement agreement that the plaintiff has entered into in a prior action that releases the Duke and others from any and all potential liability," Brettler said.Giuffre accuses Andrew of having sex with her when she was a minor, and filed a civil lawsuit against the prince in New York in August. Andrew has denied similar allegations from Giuffre in the past.But the case can't proceed until judicial authorities determine that legal papers have been legally served to the prince. Brettler said Monday that the Duke of York's legal team had been in contact with the High Court in the United Kingdom which they say must weigh in on the service — or formal notification — of the lawsuit.Giuffre's lawyers say this has been done. In an affidavit filed in the Southern District of New York on Friday, a process server hired by Giuffre's legal team to give formal notice of the lawsuit to Andrew said he left the papers with the Metropolitan Police security detail at the main gates of the prince's home, the Royal Lodge in Windsor, on Aug. 27. "We've proceeded to serve Prince Andrew in several ways pursuant to Article 10 of the Hague Convention," an attorney for Giuffre, David Boies, said during Monday's hearing.Federal Judge Lewis Kaplan and attorneys for Giuffre agreed it was premature to discuss the previous settlement agreement with Epstein, which is currently sealed in another civil action in the Southern District of New York."I think we are making this more complicated that it already is," the judge said in court Monday.Kaplan ordered a schedule for the parties to file procedural motions that will play out before he makes a decision on the service of the lawsuit and whether that settlement agreement should be shared with the Prince's counsel. An in-person hearing in New York is scheduled for Oct. 13.CNN reached out to attorneys for both parties for comment.Giuffre says she was trafficked by Epstein and forced to have sex with his friends, including Prince Andrew, Queen Elizabeth's second son, when she was a minor. While Andrew has denied the claims, he has been seen in photos with Giuffre and Ghislaine Maxwell, a British socialite and former girlfriend of Epstein who is currently charged with conspiracy and sex trafficking amongst other charges.U.S. authorities have previously accused Andrew of not cooperating with attempts to interview him as part of the investigation into the alleged sex trafficking ring ​Epstein and Maxwell are suspected of operating.The prince stepped back from royal duties in the wake of a 2019 interview he gave the BBC in which he was widely considered to have damaged his own credibility. He now rarely appears in public.

Editor's note: Some of the details in this story may be disturbing to some.A former tour manager for R. Kelly reluctantly testified Friday that he paid a $500 bribe to a government worker to get the singer Aaliyah a fake identification card so Kelly could secretly marry her when she was 15 years old.Demetrius Smith told a jury at Kelly’s sex-trafficking trial that after he went into a Chicago-area welfare office in 1994, he brazenly approached an employee who was taking ID photos."Hey, want to make some money?" he said he asked the employee before handing over the cash. He was confident the bribe would work because "everybody needs some money," he added.The welfare card was one of two fake IDs used to clear the way for the R&B legend to marry Aaliyah after he began a sexual relationship with her and believed she had become pregnant. A marriage license that was put into evidence falsely listed her age as 18; Kelly was 27 at the time.Prosecutors say Kelly wanted to use the marriage, which was later annulled, to shield himself from criminal charges related to having sex with a minor and to prevent her from testifying against him.Aaliyah, whose full name was Aaliyah Dana Haughton, worked with Kelly, who wrote and produced her 1994 debut album, "Age Ain’t Nothing But A Number." She died in a plane crash in 2001 at age 22.Kelly, now 54, is charged in the bribery scheme as part of a racketeering case accusing him of sexually abusing several women, girls and boys during the course of his 30-year singing career. He’s vehemently denied the charges, claiming that the women were groupies who wanted to take advantage of his fame and fortune achieved through hits like "I Believe Can Fly."Forced to testify against his will after being given immunity from future charges, Smith repeatedly told the judge he was uneasy about taking the stand, though he did not give a specific reason. But with prodding from the judge, he detailed how the singer came to him while he was on a 1994 tour and told him, "Aaliyah is in trouble. We need to get home."They rushed back to Chicago after a concert in another city so they could arrange the marriage meant "to protect him and Aaliyah," Smith said. He said he told Kelly, "'I know how to get her an ID,' and that’s what I did."Earlier Friday, another former Kelly employee, Anthony Navarro, was called by the government to describe the inner workings of the Chicago-area mansion where Kelly had a recording studio and a constant stream of female visitors.Being at the mansion "was almost like the 'Twilight Zone,'" Navarro said. "It’s just a strange place."Navarro's testimony bolstered the government's contention that Kelly controlled everything around him and created an environment where girls and women who entered the space faced strict rules that gave them little choice but to submit to the singer's sexual whims.Navarro told jurors that he never witnessed Kelly sexually abuse his victims. But there were "girls" who would stay at his home for long stretches and couldn’t eat or depart without Kelly’s permission, he said"There’s been times where they wanted to (leave) but couldn’t because they couldn’t get a ride or we couldn’t get ahold of Rob" to get approval, he said.Navarro, who was trained as an audio engineer, spent much of his time doing menial chores for Kelly like driving visitors to and from his home."Mainly it was girls who were coming to the studio," he said.