R Kelly's ex goddaughter tells jury at his child pornography trial that he had sex with her 'hundreds of times' before she turned 18 - and it started when she was 15
Daily Mail, UK/August 18, 2022
By Melissa Koenig and Associated Press
A woman who has been central to R. Kelly's legal troubles for more than two decades testified Thursday that the R&B singer had sex with her 'hundreds' of times before she turned 18 years old, starting when she was just 15.
Jane - the pseudonym for the now 37-year-old woman at Kelly's trial on child pornography and obstruction of justice charges - told jurors that in the late 1990s when she was 13, she asked the Grammy award-winning singer to be her godfather because she saw him as an inspiration and mentor.
Within weeks, she said, Kelly would call her and say sexual things.
He first touched her breasts and other parts of her body when she was around 14 at a Chicago recording studio, she testified, and that around that time, he 'started penetration' at his home at his North Side Chicago home.
Jane said she was 15 when they first had intercourse. Kelly, 55, would have been around 30 years old at the time.
Sometimes, she testified, they would have sex with other teenage girls she would recruit at Kelly's request.
With her testimony on Thursday, Jane served as the first former victim to speak out about what she allegedly endured in the R&B star's ongoing trial.
He stands charged in Chicago federal court with enticing of minors for sex, producing child pornography and rigging his 2008 pornography trial.
Prosecutors say Kelly paid off and threatened Jane and her family to ensure that she didn't testify at a similar 2008 trial. She didn't, and he was ultimately acquitted.
Now, though, Kelly, 55, is serving a 30-year prison sentence for his conviction in a New York earlier this year on other federal charges alleging he used his fame to sexually abuse fans over several decades.
Two other minor victims are also expected to testify in the Chicago trial, which is expected to last about a month.
In court on Thursday, Jane revealed she first met Kelly when she was 13.
She was in a music group at the time, and Kelly — a friend of her aunt's — attended one of their performances, and gave her good feedback.
'It made me feel happy that such a successful person was saying I was gifted, so I was excited,' Jane testified, according to the Chicago Tribune.
She said her aunt then advised her to ask Kelly to be her godfather, explaining her aunt told her 'I should sit on his lap and rub his head and ask him to play that role in my life.'
Jane said she obliged, and Kelly 'chuckled a bit, and said "yes."
But soon the relationship became sexual, Jane claimed, and he started having explicit phone conversations.
In at least one case, WGN-TV reports, she said Kelly asked her what color her underwear was, and told her he was pleasuring himself as they spoke.
Kelly then gave her alcohol for the first time when she was 14, Jane said, and she began drinking heavily.
'It would help me loosen up, kind of take me away from the moment,' she said.
By the time she was 15, she said, they started having sex, and when asked by a prosecutor how she knew her exact age, Jane replied: 'Because that's when I lost my virginity.'
From there, Jane said, they would have intercourse in Kelly's home on West George Street, at his Near West Side recording studio, on tour buses and in hotels.
Asked by a prosecutor how she would know what to do sexually, Jane answered: 'He would tell me what to do.'
And when asked how many times they had sex before she turned 18, she answered quietly: 'Uncountable times...hundreds.'
Unlike at the 2008 trial, Jane cooperated with prosecutors leading up to the current trial and is a pivotal witness.
Prosecutors have said Kelly shot an explicit video of Jane in a log cabin-themed room at his North Side Chicago home between 1998 and 2000. In it, the girl is heard calling the man 'daddy.'
Retired Chicago Detective Daniel Everett also testified on Thursday that he got the tape from a former Chicago Sun-Times journalist, and immediately recognized Jane in the footage — though she had denied being involved.
Prosecutors now say Kelly, who rose from poverty on Chicago's South Side to become a star singer, songwriter and producer, knew a conviction in 2008 would effectively end his life as he knew it, and so he conspired to fix that trial.
According to prosecutors, Kelly told Jane and her parents to leave Chicago, paying for them to travel to the Bahamas and Cancun, Mexico.
When they returned, prosecutors say Kelly sought to isolate Jane, moving her around to different hotels. When called before a state grand jury looking into the video, Jane, her father and mother denied it was her in it.
Tears streamed down his faced on June 13, 2008, when he was acquitted on all counts of child pornography. Some of the jurors told reporters after the trial that they weren't convinced that the female in the video was who state prosecutors said she was.
But court filings say before the 2008 trial, Kelly carried a duffle bag full of sex tapes everywhere he went for years, but some tapes later went missing.
In the 2000s, bootleg copies of some videos appeared on street corners throughout the U.S.
At the same time, Jane's aunt showed the parents a copy of a video she said depicted their daughter having sex with Kelly. When they confronted Kelly, he told them, 'You're with me or against me,' a government filing says.
The parents took it as a threat, prosecutors allege.
Jurors at the trial in Chicago will now be shown the graphic video of the disgraced singer allegedly having sex with Jane.
Jurors also heard on Thursday from Matthew Hulsizer, who purchased Kelly's former home in Lakeview, where he allegedly filmed at least one of the videos.
Hulsizer said that after he moved in, he found that a smoke detector in at least one bedroom concealed a small hidden video camera, and in order to leave that room, you had to press a button.
Kelly, who has denied any wrongdoing, has been trailed for decades by complaints and allegations about his sexual behavior. The scrutiny intensified after the #MeToo era and the 2019 six-part documentary 'Surviving R. Kelly.'
Kelly also faces four counts of enticement of minors for sex - one each for four other accusers. They, too, are expected to testify.
Prosecutors told jurors that the evidence includes at least three videos showing Kelly having sex with underage girls.
Two Kelly associates, Derrel McDavid and Milton Brown, are serving as co-defendants.
Both are charged with one count of conspiracy to receive child pornography, while McDavid also faces two counts of receiving child pornography and one count of conspiracy to obstruct justice in the 2008 trial.
Prosecutors say Kelly and those in his inner circle paid out hundreds of thousands of dollars over the years in an effort to track down the video tapes and prevent them from seeing the light of day.
But like Kelly, McDavid and Brown deny any wrongdoing.
In opening statements on Wednesday, U.S. Assistant Attorney Jason Julien said that much of the world knew Kelly by his hit song 'I Believe I Can Fly,' but argued that was 'Kelly's public side.'
'Kelly had another side...a hidden side, a dark side,' he said. 'This trial is about Kelly's hidden side.'
Julien sought to give jurors a sense of the scale of Kelly's alleged exploitation, saying he 'repeatedly' had sex with girls who were just 14, 15 and 16 years old - 'multiple girls, hundreds of times.'
Kelly's lead attorney Jennifer Bonjean, meanwhile, implored jurors during her opening statement not to accept what she said was the prosecution's portrayal of her client as 'a monster.'
She said that Kelly, in part because of intellectual challenges that included illiteracy, was forced to rely on others as his career took off and that he was sometimes led astray by those in his circle of associates.
'Mr. Kelly can also be a victim,' she said.
A conviction in Chicago could add decades to a 30-year prison sentence he already received from a New York federal judge for charges that he used his fame to sexually abuse other young fans.
During the sentencing, the judge said Kelly created 'a trail of broken lives,' adding that 'the most seasoned investigators will not forget the horrors your victims endured.
'These crimes were calculated and carefully planned and regularly executed for almost 25 years,' she said. 'You taught them that love is enslavement and violence.'
Lizzette Martinez, one of the victims at the June hearing, said she doesn't think Kelly's sentence is enough 'but [was] pleased with it.'
Martinez, who described herself to the reporters as an 'up-and-coming singer, a girl full of life' before she met R Kelly and became 'a sex slave.'
Kelly was ultimately convicted of sex-trafficking and racketeering charges last September, following a six-week trial that amplified the accusations.
Still, he has denied wrongdoing and is now appealing his sentence, under which he would not be eligible for early release until he is about 80 years old.
The sentence caps off a slow-motion fall for Kelly, who was adored by legions of fans and sold millions of albums even after allegations about his abuse of young girls began circulating publicly in the 1990s.
What was R Kelly found guilty of at his New York trial?
R Kelly stood trial Brooklyn federal court last year after he was accused of being the ringleader of a sex ring involving women and underage girls and boys.
The charges were first brought in a five-count superseding indictment in Brooklyn federal court in July 2019.
In March 2020, he was slapped with additional charges upgrading the case to a nine-count indictment.
The charges relate to allegations involving six alleged victims - five women named as Jane Does in the indictment and the singer Aaliyah. These charges are:
ONE COUNT OF RACKETEERING - GUILTY
The racketeering charge includes 14 underlying acts including: one act of bribery, three acts of sexual exploitation of a child, one act of kidnapping, three acts of forced labor and six acts of violating the Mann Act.
Racketeering charges are used where there is an 'enterprise', mob or mafia running organized crime operations.
In this case, Kelly is accused of running a racketeering 'enterprise' for two decades made up of his 'inner circle' of managers, bodyguards and other employees who would help him recruit women, girls and boys for him to sexually exploit and traffic them around the US.
EIGHT COUNTS OF VIOLATING THE MANN ACT - GUILTY
The Mann Act is a federal law that makes it illegal to traffic people across state lines for prostitution or illegal sexual activity.
Four of these charges relate to an incident involving Jane Doe #5 in 2015 while the other four involve Jane Doe #6 in separate incidents in May 2017 and February 2018.
Three of these charges involve Kelly allegedly exposing the two women to herpes without informing them.
To see more documents/articles regarding this group/organization/subject click here.
