What to Know
- The jury has reached a verdict in the R. Kelly sex-trafficking trial.
- The New York case was only part of the legal peril facing the singer, born Robert Sylvester Kelly. He also has pleaded not guilty to sex-related charges in Illinois and Minnesota
- The trial came at a close more than a decade after Kelly was acquitted in a 2008 child pornography case in Chicago
After a weeks-long federal sex trafficking trial, R. Kelly has been found guilty on all counts by a federal jury in Brooklyn Monday.
The anonymous jury made up of seven men and five women who have listened to witnesses and defenses from the R&B singer’s lawyer for over the past month announced they reached a verdict Monday afternoon.
Kelly was charged with one count of racketeering, which has 14 underlying acts including kidnapping, forced labor, sex trafficking and bribery. The singer was also charged with eight counts of violating the Mann Act, which makes it illegal to transport anyone across state lines for any immoral purpose.
Although Kelly was found guilty of all counts, he was found not guilty of three racketeering acts relating to a radio intern. The government had to prove at least two of the 14 underlying acts related to the racketeering charge.
The jury took nine hours in deliberations before coming to the verdict. As the verdict was read, Kelly mostly kept his head down. However, he did close his eyes a few times.
The verdict means Kelly faces many decades in prison when he is sentenced on May 4, 2022.
Jacquelyn Kasulis, the interim U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York who prosecuted the case, called Kelly “a predator” and said that “justice was finally served.”
“Today’s guilty verdict forever brands R. Kelly as a predator who used his fame and fortune to prey on the young, the vulnerable and the voiceless for his own sexual gratification,” Kasulis said in a press conference following the verdict, adding that Kelly is “a predator who used his inner circle to ensnare underage girls, and young men and women, for decades in a sordid web of sex abuse, exploitation and humiliation.”
Kasulis and attorney Gloria Allred, who represented three of the six accusers, recognized their bravery in coming forward and testifying against Kelly. Allred also said that Kelly was the worst sexual predator she has come across in her decades representing victims.
“I have been practicing law for 47 years. During this time I have pursued many sexual predators who have committed crimes against women and children. Of all the predators that I have pursued, however, Mr. Kelly is the worst — for many reasons,” Allred said. “First, he used the power of celebrity to recruit vulnerable, underage girls for the purpose of sexually abusing them…Second, he used the power of his business enterprise and many of his inner circle employees to assist him and enable him…all of which made Mr. Kelly more powerful and more dangerous than many other sexual predators who operate.”
Meanwhile, Kelly’s lawyer, Deveraux Cannick, said he was disappointed by the verdict. “I think I’m even more disappointed the government brought the case in the first place given all the inconsistencies,” Cannick said.
Kelly, 54, has repeatedly denied accusations that behind the scenes of a 30-year career highlighted by his 1996 megahit “I Believe I Can Fly,” he was a sexual predator who groomed and exploited his young victims. His lawyers have portrayed the accusers as groupies seeking to take advantage of his fame.
Though multiple female accusers and cooperating former associates who had never spoken publicly before about their experiences with Kelly, testified about how Kelly’s managers, bodyguards and other employees helped him recruit women and girls, and sometimes boys, for sexual exploitation.
Witnesses say the group selected victims at concerts and other venues and arranged for them to travel to see Kelly in the New York City area and elsewhere, in violation of the Mann Act, the 1910 law that made it illegal to “transport any woman or girl” across state lines “for any immoral purpose.”
The New York case was only part of the legal peril facing the singer, born Robert Sylvester Kelly. He also has pleaded not guilty to sex-related charges in Illinois and Minnesota.
For years, the public and news media seemed to be more amused than horrified by allegations of inappropriate relationships with minors, starting with Kelly’s illegal marriage to the R&B phenom Aaliyah in 1994 when she was just 15.
His records and concert tickets kept selling. Other artists continued to record his songs, even after he was arrested in 2002 and accused of making a recording of himself sexually abusing and urinating on a 14-year-old girl.
The women’s stories got wide exposure with the Lifetime documentary “Surviving R. Kelly.” The series explored how an entourage of supporters protected Kelly and silenced his victims for decades, foreshadowing the federal racketeering conspiracy case that landed Kelly in jail in 2019. The docuseries helped make his case a signifier of the #MeToo era, and gave voice to alleged victims who wondered if their stories were previously ignored because they were Black women.
The trial came at a close more than a decade after Kelly was acquitted in a 2008 child pornography case in Chicago.
from NBC Chicago https://ift.tt/3EU6Ob7
No comments:
Post a Comment