Made women fight
Witness: Kelly had girlfriends battle after twerking
Welcome to R. Kelly’s freaky fight club — where girlfriends beat each other up after twerking.
A former employee of the disgraced R&B superstar testified Tuesday that Kelly once had his girlfriends fight each other as punishment for misbehavior during a bizarre booty-shaking birthday party.
The supposed infraction came when Kelly’s partners twerked at the singer’s January 2016 birthday bash at his Chicago studio, the witness testified. The bizarre episode was not fully explained, but Suzette Mayweather, who worked for Kelly for years as an assistant, said on the stand that the women had “twerked for cake” in an apparent effort to get a slice of dessert.
“He had to have them get on each other. I think they were fighting,” said Mayweather.
While Mayweather did not see the fight, she heard laughing, screaming and thumping coming from upstairs at the studio during the brouhaha, she testified.
“He didn’t like an incident where they were twerking for cake,” Mayweather said.
She described the surreal episode in Brooklyn Federal Court one day after a different witness claimed R. Kelly surprised a visitor with a nude young lady who emerged from under a boxing ring at the snap of the singer’s fingers.
Mayweather was part of a team of employees for Kelly, who is accused of running an elaborate sex trafficking scheme targeting young women and girls at his concerts.
The “Sex Me” singer — who allegedly compared himself to Jerry Lee Lewis when explaining his attraction to underage girls — beat his accusers, spanked them as punishment for breaking his rules, and locked them in rooms for days at a time, according to witnesses.
Mayweather said one of Kelly’s girlfriends once came to her in tears, showing her marks on her buttocks from where “Rob” spanked her.
She also said Kelly was a nightmare boss who docked employees’ pay with what he called a “fine.”
In one strange incident, Kelly called Mayweather around 2 a.m. demanding that she bring him sweet potato pie. Not wanting to disappoint, Mayweather took an Uber to Walmart.
“I purchased all of the Patti LaBelle’s Sweet Potato Pie,” she said.
“You thought I was going to fail your test,” she said to Kelly upon delivering the desserts to his studio.
“Well damn, Twin,” Kelly responded, using Mayweather’s nickname.
But Kelly’s mood quickly turned dark when Mayweather confirmed she’d spoken to one of Kelly’s girlfriends about their relationship — a violation of the singer’s strict rules.
“He did become angry,” Mayweather recalled. “This particular incident was the first time ever — I’m sorry — it was the first time that I’d ever seen Rob really upset. ... It wasn’t the tone, it was the look in his eyes.”
Mayweather also testified that Kelly sometimes forced his girls to remain in rooms for long periods of time, and that they needed his permission to use the bathroom, eat or get off of tour buses.
Late in the afternoon, a sixth Kelly accuser testified that she met him at a 2017 concert in San Antonio.
Members of Kelly’s staff invited the woman, who goes by Faith, and her sister backstage for an afterparty, she testified. The afterparty was filled with women — no men — but Kelly approached Faith, who was 19, and gave her his phone number on a slip of paper.
The two began speaking by text, phone and FaceTime almost every day, with Kelly saying he loved her within the first week.
“I got to see a compassionate side of him, emotional sides. He wasn’t always bad, wasn’t always mean,” she noted. But Kelly could “flip” from “extremely calm” to “super sexually hyper,” she added.