LAST STAND
R. Kelly is like MLK, says singer’s lawyer
During a fiery closing argument to a Brooklyn Federal Court jury, R. Kelly’s lawyer conflated the R&B superstar’s alleged sex trafficking and sex with teenage women with Martin Luther King Jr.’s fight for civil rights.
The comparison came Thursday at the beginning of Deveraux Cannick’s final remarks at Kelly’s trial.
Cannick said Kelly and King both sought to uphold America’s Constitution, and quoted from King’s famous “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” speech, delivered in Memphis in 1968 the day before King was assassinated.
“Somewhere I read of the freedom of speech,” Cannick said. “Somewhere I read of the freedom of assembly.”
“That’s all Robert is trying to do,” the lawyer added, insisting that his client and King both sought to make America “be true to what’s on paper.”
He said the jury’s task in deciding the case was comparable to that undertaken by King and civil rights activists in the 1960s.
“You don’t have to worry about being beaten, maimed or killed. You just have to do your job,” Cannick said.
Cannick’s closing came after six weeks in court that saw more than 10 accusers level claims of sexual abuse at R. Kelly, born Robert Sylvester Kelly.
Prosecutors accused Kelly, 54, of running an enterprise that peddled women and girls for illegal sex over more than a quarter century — and the women painted a pattern of abuse the “I Believe I Can Fly” singer with stunning consistency.
He made all his girlfriends call him “Daddy” and controlled how they dressed, when they could use the bathroom or eat, how they could interact with men, and whether they could leave the rooms he kept them inside his houses or hotels on the road, women testified.
Cannick, however, painted Kelly’s accusers as spiteful exes looking to cash in on their relationships with the singer through lawsuits and book deals. He claimed his client was “never, never coercive” and that the women are “manipulating” the court system for money.
“They’re all working on those paydays,” Cannick said. “These folks are capitalizing... You can’t blame folks for trying to make a living but that’s totally separate from trying to take away someone’s liberty.”
While the feds said that Kelly used confidential settlements to silence his victims, Cannick explained that they admitted no wrongdoing.
“A settlement means nothing. A settlement means, ‘I don’t have time to deal with it.’”
Cannick insisted Thursday that the women were not being truthful, and that his cross examination over the course of the trial sliced through what they said on the stand.
“They’re lying. And you knew they were lying... Lie after lie after lie,” he said. “And you know what’s so sad about it? The government let them lie.”
“Where’s the fairness to Robert? Where’s the integrity?”
Cannick’s closing argument was followed by rebuttal from Assistant U.S. Attorney Nadia Shihata, who slammed the defense for victim shaming the accusers.
“Don’t let them gaslight you,” she told jurors. “It’s as if we took a time machine and went back to a courtroom in the 1950s.”
“What you’ve heard about from witness after witness is a process of indoctrination, grooming... It’s a process, not an event, and he used that process to exert control over his victims,” Shihata said.
The jury is expected to begin deliberations Friday. Kelly faces 10 years to life in prison if convicted.