CHICAGO (AP) — A federal jury in Chicago on Wednesday found R. Kelly guilty of making child pornography and promoting girls for sex after a month-long trial in his hometown, dealing another legal blow to the former Grammy Award-winning singer. one of the biggest R&B stars in the world.
Prosecutors sentenced six of the 13 charges, most of which included long mandatory sentences. But the government lost a big bill – Kelly and his then-business manager successfully defrauded a state-run child pornography lawsuit in 2008.
Two defendants were also acquitted, including longtime business manager Darrell McDavid, who told jurors that the testimony of four of Kelly’s accusers caused him to change his mind about Kelly’s credibility.
R. Kelly performs on stage during Day 3 of the 2013 Pitchfork Music Festival at Union Park in Chicago, Illinois, on July 21, 2013. (Daniel Bokzarski/Redferns via Getty Images)
The case is, in some ways, a repeat of Kelly’s 2008 child pornography case, and there is substantial video criticizing both. Kelly, who wept with joy when jury members acquitted him in 2008, gave the audience a thumbs up after Wednesday’s verdict, but showed little emotion other than that.
Before sending Kelly back to federal prison, McDavid hugged Kelly, who rose from poverty on Chicago’s South Side to become a superstar.
When asked by journalists outside of court how Kelly felt after the verdict, her lead attorney, Jennifer Bonjean, said Kelly was used to bad news.
“There are more fights to come,” he said. “But he said he was relieved that this event was a thing of the past.”
The verdict comes just months after a federal judge in New York City sentenced Kelly to 30 years in prison in June for racketeering and sex trafficking. According to this sentence, a 55-year-old man cannot be released until he is about 80 years old.
Singer R. Kelly (centre) appears before Judge Lawrence Flood in Leighton Criminal Court on June 26, 2019. Prosecutors turned over a DVD of Kelly claiming she had sex with an underage victim. (via E. JASON WAMBSGUNS/AFP, Getty Images)
Kelly is facing two sexual harassment lawsuits, one in Minnesota and one in state court in Chicago.
After 11 hours over two days, the jury found Kelly guilty of three times child pornography and seduction, acquitting him of obstruction of justice, one child pornography count, and three child pornography acquisitions.
Among the charges McDavid was acquitted of was conspiracy with Kelly to falsify a lawsuit in 2008. Another defendant, Milton Brown, was acquitted of the charges of obtaining child pornography.
Chicago US Attorney John Lausch expressed his satisfaction with the decision. He told reporters that if possible sentences on all six charges were added, Kelly would face between 10 and 90 years in prison.
Judge Harry Leinenweber did not set a sentencing date. He may order Kelly to serve any sentence he has served at the same time as the New York sentence or only after that sentence has been fully served. The latter means life imprisonment for practical purposes.
Prosecutors in a federal court in Illinois described Kelly as a master manipulator, some of whom used his fame and fortune to deceive his underage fans, sexually assaulted them, and then dumped them.
According to witnesses, Kelly, born Robert Sylvester Kelly, was desperate to recover the pornographic videos he had filmed and carried in his gym bag. They say he offered up to $1 million to return the lost videos prior to the 2008 lawsuit, knowing this would put him in legal danger. Prosecutors said the plan to cover up the abuse ran from 2000 to 2020.
There were several dozen Kelly fans regularly at the trial. At least once during the break, several people gave Kelly the heart sign. He smiled back.
Kelly’s lawyer, Bonjin, told jurors that in some cases the government relied on liars and blackmailers as witnesses. He had previously begged jurors not to view Kelly as the “monster” that prosecutors said he desperately wanted to see.
Singer R. Kelly is set to resign after a hearing in Layton Criminal Court on September 17, 2019, in Chicago, Illinois. Kelly is facing multiple sexual harassment charges and is being held without bail. (Antonio Perez – Billiards via Getty Images)
In his final rebuttal Tuesday, prosecutor Ginnis Appeteng cited evidence that Kelly’s inner circle was increasingly focused on what Kelly wanted as his popularity grew in the mid-1990s.
“Ladies and gentlemen, R. Kelly wants to have sex with girls,” he said.
All four of Kelly’s accusers testified were using pseudonyms or first names: Jane, Nia, Pauline, and Tracey. Some cried while describing the abuse, while others spoke calmly and confidently. The fifth defendant, Brittany, did not testify, and the jury acquitted Kelly of one charge against him.
Four of his six convictions relate directly to Jane and are largely based on her testimony.
He was a key witness for the government, and also played a key role in arranging a trial in which he was acquitted and charged with using threats and bribes to compel him to lie to the grand jury before the trial. in 2008.
The only video in which state prosecutors say Kelly molested a 14-year-old girl is the focus of this case. The three child pornography charges that Kelly pleaded guilty to Wednesday were linked to this and other videos depicting Jane.
Jane, 37, made public for the first time at a recent hearing that the girl in the video is Kelly, who is 14 years old and the child is in her 30s.
Several jurors in the 2008 trial said they had to acquit Kelly because the woman in the video did not testify.
When asked how many times Jane and Kelly had abused her before she turned 18, Jane calmly replied, “Countless times. … Hundreds.”
A member of a young singing group, Jane first met Kelly in high school in the late 1990s. Soon, Jane tells her parents that Kelly will be her godfather.
Jane said that when her parents confronted Kelly in the early 2000s, she got down on her knees and apologized to them. She said she begged her parents not to act against Kelly because she loved him.
Defense attorneys accused some government witnesses of trying to blackmail him, and that his desire for money and fame led some government witnesses to accuse Kelly.
Prosecutors showed jurors clips from three videos in which Jane featured herself. Court officials placed opaque screens around jurors to prevent viewers from seeing the video or the jurors’ reactions.
But the voice was heard. In one video, a girl can be heard repeatedly calling a man “daddy”. He once said, “Daddy, do you still love me?” she asked. The man gives her explicit sexual instructions.
Prosecutors said Kelly recorded the video in a log cabin-style room in her North Chicago home in 1998, which was also evidence in a 2008 trial.
Pauline, another accuser, said that Jane introduced her to Kelly in 1998 when they were 14-year-old high school classmates. She told the jurors that she still cares about Kelly. But she says she has a different perspective as a 37-year-old mother.
“If someone does something to my children,” he said, “I’ll kill them. Time.”
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Joey Cappelletti is a member of the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on confidential matters. Follow Michael Tarm on Twitter at https://twitter.com/mtarm and you can find the full AP report on R. Kelly’s case at https://apnews.com/hub/r-kelly.
Source: Breitbart
