R. Kelly’s Federal Trial Is In The Hands Of The Jury

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A courtroom sketch of R. Kelly telling Judge Ann M. Donnelly he won’t take the stand in his own defense.

Elizabeth Williams/AP

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Elizabeth Williams/AP

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Notebook: A Month Into R. Kelly’s Trial, Here’s What It’s Been Like In The Courtroom

By contrast, Cannick tended to appeal to the jury’s emotions in his closing argument Thursday. By turns, he invoked Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (saying that if the jurors acquit Kelly, they would be displaying the same sort of moral courage as King), Hugh Hefner (R. Kelly’s life was similarly that of a «sex symbol, a playboy, said Cannick) and former vice president Mike Pence (who reportedly refers to his wife as «Mother, while R. Kelly asks his girlfriends to call him «Daddy). He also dismissed Kelly’s marriage to the singer Aaliyah, when she was just 15 years old and he was 27, as «fluff.

One woman, who went by «Jane during the trial, testified that she met Kelly when she was a 17-year-old aspiring singer. She said that when she went to audition for him at a hotel in Florida, he immediately pressed her for sex. In a text message submitted as evidence by the prosecution, Kelly allegedly wrote to her: «I want to groom you and be bonded with you one hundred percent.

A man who went by the name «Louis on the stand told the court that Kelly began sexually assaulting him when he was a 17-year-old high school student and aspiring musician.

Kelly’s defense attorneys had brought forward only five witnesses to testify over the course of three days, beginning on Monday. Kelly did not take the stand himself, nor did any of his current or former romantic partners. Instead, the defense presented a series of men who all had worked with or for Kelly in some capacity.

Larry Hood was the defense’s first witness on Monday. A childhood friend and former Chicago police officer, he worked security for Kelly, and also recruited other CPD officers to work on the side for the star. (In his 2019 book, Soulless, journalist Jim DeRogatis writes: «I’d long heard some police officers in Chicago and Olympia Fields [a Chicago suburb where Kelly lived] worked security for Kelly, and department rules didn’t stop them from doing it or require them to tell anyone about it.)

Hood testified that he’d never seen any underage girls with the singer. But he then went on to say that he was with Kelly when the artist first met Aaliyah, with her family at their home in Detroit, and that he saw Aaliyah and her «little friends at Kelly’s studio. (Earlier in the trial, Kelly’s former manager, Demetrius Smith, testified to having helped organize the marriage between Kelly and Aaliyah, when the late pop star was just 15 years old; Smith bribed a public assistance office in Chicago to make a fake ID for Aaliyah.)

Hood also admitted during cross-examination that he had left the police force in 2007, in good standing and with a pension, when he was convicted of a felony forgery for passing fake $100 bills. He said on the stand during this trial that he hadn’t been aware that they were fake.

«So you weren’t telling the truth when you were in court under oath when you pled guilty? a prosecutor asked him. «Yes, Hood answered. «And you’re in court under oath today, the prosecutor added. Again, Hood replied, «Yes.

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Prosecution Rests Its Case In R. Kelly Sex Crimes And Racketeering Trial

On Tuesday, the defense called to the stand John Holder, Kelly’s former accountant. Holder testified that Kelly insisted on getting paid for his concerts in cash, and then using that cash to take his girlfriends shopping. He said he was hired after the IRS audited Kelly and found that he owed the government $12 million, a sum Holder reduced to $3 million. During cross-examination, prosecutors asked Holder to explain an org chart he’d made for Kelly’s business, RSK Enterprises.

Instead of an org chart’s usual lines and boxes, however, this chart depicted a red cartoon octopus. In retrospect, the octopus was an unfortunate metaphor for a company now accused of being a «criminal enterprise whose focus was luring girls, boys and women into sexual abuse.

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An org chart for R. Kelly’s company, RSK Enterprises, made by his former accountant.

courtesy of the Eastern District of New York

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An org chart for R. Kelly’s company, RSK Enterprises, made by his former accountant.

courtesy of the Eastern District of New York

Multiple witnesses, including former employees, testified for the prosecution that Kelly forced them into writing false letters as collateral, which they say Kelly believed would absolve him of any crimes. Employees and accusers also described the multitude of «rules they say Kelly forced women in particular to follow, from needing to seek permission to order food to prohibiting his girlfriends to speak to other men, even during public activities such as going clothing shopping.

«He used lies, manipulation, threats, and physical abuse to dominate his victims. He used his money and public persona to hide his crimes in plain sight, Geddes said during the prosecution’s closing arguments. She also pointed out that it’s normal for an artist to have an inner circle promoting their music and brand. «But his inner circle also served as enablers of his criminal conduct.

Geddes also sought to point out that Kelly’s crimes were frequent and took place over decades. His abuse and subsequent marriage to Aaliyah, she said as an example, was not a single act. «After the defendant had access to Aaliyah and he surrounded her with teens that he had already been abusing, Geddes noted, «the defendant sexually abused Aaliyah too.

After this trial in New York ends, Kelly will head to a separate federal trial in Illinois, where he faces child pornography and obstruction charges. He also faces outstanding criminal charges in both Cook County, Ill., where he was indicted by the state attorney in Feb. 2019 on aggravated criminal sexual abuse charges involving four victims (three of them minors), and in Minnesota, where Mr. Kelly was charged in Aug. 2019 with engaging in prostitution with a minor.