Prosecutors air more claims in R. Kelly case, including abuse of boy
Federal prosecutors in R. Kelly’s sex trafficking case say he had sexual contact with an underage boy in addition to girls, and the government wants jurors in his upcoming sex trafficking trial to hear those claims.
Prosecutors aired a raft of additional allegations — but not new charges — against the R&B star in a court filing Friday. Jury selection is due to start Aug. 9 in a New York federal court for Kelly, who denies ever abusing anyone.
The singer is charged with leading what prosecutors call a criminal enterprise of managers, bodyguards and other employees who allegedly helped him recruit women and girls for sex and pornography and to exercise control over them.
The charges involve six different women and girls, who aren’t named in court filings.
Now, prosecutors would also like jurors to hear about more than a dozen other people whom the government alleges that Kelly sexually or physically abused, threatened or otherwise mistreated.
Among them, the government says, was a 17-year-old boy and aspiring musician whom Kelly met at a McDonald’s in December 2006 and later invited to his Chicago studio. After asking the boy what he would do to make it in the music business, Kelly propositioned and had sexual contact with him while he was still underage, according to prosecutors’ court filing.
The boy also introduced Kelly to a 16- or 17-year-old male friend, with whom prosecutors say the singer began a sexual relationship several years later. Kelly also filmed the two youths in sexual encounters with other people, including some of Kelly’s girlfriends, according to the filing.
Prosecutors wrote that the accounts of the boys and others would help show that the actual charges “were not isolated events and were part of a larger pattern.”
Ala. cop resigns months after murder conviction:
An Alabama police officer who remained on his city’s payroll for two months after being convicted of murder has resigned from the Huntsville Police Department.
Officer William Darby left of his own accord, the city told WAAY-TV on Friday. Darby had been on paid leave since his May 7 conviction for shooting a suicidal man who was holding a gun to his own head.
The city said placing Darby on paid leave was normal until its personnel policies and procedures could be completed. Huntsville’s Republican mayor and police chief publicly disagreed with the jury’s murder verdict.
Pakistan mine mudslide kills 4:
A mudslide at a mine in southwest Pakistan killed four coal miners and injured two others on Saturday following heavy monsoon rains, officials said.
Local government administrator Amir Khan said that by the time rescuers reached the area hit by the torrent, the 200-foot-deep mine had partially collapsed.
He said the mine, located in the Sharag area of the Harnai district, was ordered closed following the incident.
Such accidents are common in Pakistan’s coal mines, where safety standards are not widely respected.
Frito-Lay plant strike ends: Union members at the Frito
Lay plant in Topeka have approved a new contract and will return to work Monday, ending a nearly three-week strike at the plant, union officials said.
Members of Local 218 of the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers union approved the contract Friday. It gives all union members a 4% pay raise over two years and guarantees workers at least one day off each week, The Topeka Capital-Journal reported.
More than 500 of the 850 employees represented by the union went on strike on July 5, complaining of a toxic work environment, forced overtime and a lack of pay raises.
Carolyn Fisher, spokeswoman for PepsiCo., FritoLay’s parent company, said the contract allows the company to rebid its entire facility, or parts of it, once during the two-year contract.
Official in Bosnia bans
denial of genocide: The top international official in Bosnia on Friday outlawed denial of genocide in the Balkan country to counter attempts by Bosnia’s Serbs to deny the scope of the 1995 massacre in Srebrenica, Europe’s only post-World War II genocide.
The International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court for Former Yugoslavia declared the Bosnian Serb killings of more than 8,000 Bosniaks that took place in Srebrenica during the Bosnian War as genocide. But Bosnian Serb officials and neighboring Serbia have refused to accept the designation.
Valentin Inzko, the outgoing head of Bosnia’s Office of the High Representative, or OHR, imposed changes Friday to the country’s criminal code, introducing prison sentences of up to five years for genocide denial and for the glorification of war criminals, including naming of streets or public institutions after them.
As the top international body overseeing implementation of the peace agreement that ended Bosnia’s 1992-95 war, the OHR has the authority to impose decisions or dismiss officials who undermine the post-war ethnic balance and reconciliation efforts among the Bosniaks, who are mostly Muslim, Bosnia’s Serbs and Croats.
Inzko said he decided to use his powers after waiting for years for Bosnia’s politicians to act. He cited a refusal by the Bosnian Serb assembly to withdraw decorations awarded to three convicted war criminals.
“The situation has gotten worse and is now getting out of hand,” he said, warning that lack of acknowledgment was “sowing the seeds” for new conflicts.
‘Dating Game Killer’ dies:
A prolific serial tortureslayer dubbed “The Dating Game Killer” died Saturday while awaiting execution in California, authorities said.
Rodney James Alcala was 77.
He died of natural causes, prison officials said in a statement. Alcala was sentenced to death in 2010 for five slayings in California between 1977 and 1979, including that of a 12-yearold girl, though authorities estimate he may have killed up to 130 people.
Alcala appeared in 1978 on “The Dating Game” TV show and earrings he claimed to be wearing at the time were cited as evidence in his murder trial.
Earrings helped put him on death row, though Gov. Gavin Newsom has imposed a moratorium on executions so long as he is governor.
Prosecutors said Alcala stalked women like prey and took earrings as trophies from some of his victims.
“You’re talking about a guy who is hunting through Southern California looking for people to kill because he enjoys it,” Orange County, California, prosecutor Matt Murphy said during his murder trial.