Prosecutors Slam R. Kelly In Opening Statements Of Sex Abuse Case

Topline

R. Kelly’s legal team addressed jurors for the first time in a federal trial on Wednesday — nearly two months after he was sentenced to 30 years in prison in a separate trial — over charges the disgraced R&B singer sexually abused minors and conspired to rig his 2008 child pornography trial.

Key Facts

Kelly, 55, faces 13 counts of coercing five underage women between the ages of 12 and 17 into sexual acts, as well as producing and receiving child pornography—the latest legal battle over allegations of sexual abuse of underage women dating back to the 1990s.

During opening statements of the trial Wednesday, attorney Jennifer Bonjean, who represents Kelly, admitted the singer “stumbled along the way” from “poverty to stardom,” but attacked the federal government for ‘waiting over two decades” to bring the case forward, and is only doing so in a “mob justice climate.”

Assistant U.S. Aattorney Jason Julien, speaking for the prosecution, told jurors the world knows Kelly by his music, but he “had another side, a hidden side, a dark side” that he “did not allow the world to see for years.”

Kelly, whose real name is Robert Kelly, has denied all allegations of sexual misconduct, including trafficking, producing sexual imagery of minors and creating a “sex cult” of underage women.

Five women are expected to take the stand against Kelly in the proceedings in Chicago, including one witness who was allegedly involved in the creation of a sex tape when she was underaged and then allegedly paid off by Kelly to keep quiet when he faced trial over child pornography charges in 2008.

The accuser, whom the Associated Press said will be the prosecution’s “star witness,” did not testify in the 2008 trial, and prosecutors now say Kelly and a former employee named Derrel McDavid attempted to obstruct the 2008 child pornography case by concealing evidence and paying off people with knowledge of the alleged incidents.

Along with McDavid, another of Kelly’s former employees, Milton Brown, is also listed as a co-defendant, charged with receiving child pornography.

Key Background

Allegations of sexual abuse started nearly 30 years ago, when the Grammy-Award-winning singer was rising to international fame. The first lawsuit came in 1996, when his ex-wife Tiffany Hawkins alleged Kelly had sex with her five years earlier when she was 15 and he was 24. Kelly settled the suit for $250,000—the first of several settlements that would come over the next two decades from other women with similar claims. Kelly was charged with 21 counts of child pornography in 2002, but acquitted of all charges in 2008 and was not charged again until 2019 following multiple media reports and allegations against Kelly. In 2019, he was arrested after being charged with 18 counts of abuse stemming nearly two decades, including kidnapping women and distributing child pornography. He was convicted in 2021 on eight counts, including violation of the Mann Act—for taking women across state lines for sex—and racketeering, including sexual exploitation of children. A New York federal judge sentenced him to 30 years in prison in June, which would make Kelly 85 by the time of his release. Kelly is appealing that sentence.

Chief Critic

Bonjean, who represents Kelly, posted a tweet last week, saying it would be “difficult to find 12 people who can be fair given the media war on my client.” Three of the jurors, who are Black, were initially kept off the jury, but later restored after defense attorneys accused the government of denying them a spot based on their race.

Swhat To Watch For

The evidentiary phase of the trial is expected to last four weeks. Kelly also faces criminal charges in Minnesota.

Further Reading

R. Kelly Sentenced To 30 Years For Sex Trafficking And Racketeering (Forbes)

R&B Singer R. Kelly Found Guilty Of Sex Trafficking, Racketeering (Forbes)

R. Kelly trial set to open Wednesday (Chicago Sun Times)