Years in the making, R. Kelly sex abuse trial gets underway

NEW YORK (AP) — R&B star R. Kelly is a predator who lured girls, boys and young women with his fame and dominated them physically, sexually and psychologically, a prosecutor said Wednesday, while a defense lawyer warned jurors they’ll have to sift through lies from accusers with agendas to find the truth.

The differing perspectives came as the long-anticipated trial began unfolding in a Brooklyn courtroom where several accusers were scheduled to testify in the next month about the Grammy-winning, multiplatinum-selling singer whose career has been derailed by charges that have left him jailed as he goes broke.

Jerhonda Pace, the first government witness, told jurors Wednesday that she was a 16-year-old virgin and a member of Kelly’s fan club when he invited her to his mansion in 2010. He immediately told her to take off her clothing, Pace said.

“He asked me to continue to tell everyone I was 19 and act like I was 21,” she said. Kelly responded “that’s good” when she revealed her virginity, said that he wanted to “train her” sexually and ordered her to call him “Daddy,” she said.

They continued to see each other for another six months, with Kelly growing more and more controlling and erupting in violence when she broke what she called “Rob’s rules.” One time he grew so angry, “He slapped me and choked me until I passed out,” she said with no hint of emotion.

Afterward, he spit in her face and forced her to have oral sex, she said. She kept a blue T-shirt from the episode that has provided DNA evidence of the misconduct, prosecutors said.

The Associated Press doesn’t name alleged victims of sexual abuse without their consent unless they have spoken publicly extensively. Pace has appeared in a documentary and participated in media interviews.

Prior to Pace’s testimony, lawyers gave jurors an outline of the trial in their opening statements.

“This case is not about a celebrity who likes to party a lot,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Maria Cruz Melendez told the jury as she explained the evidence to be revealed at his federal trial. “This case is about a predator.”

She said he distributed backstage passes to entice children and women to join him, sometimes at his home or studio, where he then “dominated and controlled them physically, sexually and psychologically.”

The prosecutor said Kelly would often record sex acts with minors as he controlled a racketeering enterprise of individuals who were loyal and devoted to him, eager to “fulfill each and everyone one of the defendant’s wishes and demands.”

“What his success and popularity brought him was access, access to girls, boys and young women,” she said.

But Kelly’s attorney, Nicole Blank Becker, portrayed her client as a victim of women, some of whom enjoyed the “notoriety of being able to tell their friends that they were with a superstar.”

“He didn’t recruit them. They were fans. They came to Mr. Kelly,” she said, urging jurors to closely scrutinize the testimony. “They knew exactly what they were getting into. It was no secret Mr. Kelly had multiple girlfriends. He was quite transparent.”

It would be a stretch to believe he orchestrated an elaborate criminal enterprise, like a mob boss, the lawyer said.