With emails, R. Kelly case takes a big twist
Former prosecutor used burner account to reply to author of book on singer’s crimes
With trial just two weeks away, the Chicago federal case against R. Kelly took yet another strange twist Wednesday when it was revealed that the onetime lead prosecutor used a burner email account and fake name to communicate with the author of a book on Kelly’s sexual misconduct.
But the author, Jim DeRogatis, told the Tribune he was the one who was fishing for information from the prosecutor — Assistant U.S. Attorney Angel Krull — and that he got nowhere.
The emails were revealed in a motion filed early Wednesday by an attorney for Kelly’s co-defendant, Derrel McDavid. The motion alleged Krull had used the pseudonym “Demetrius Slovenski” and username “piedpiper312” to create a Gmail account April 16, 2019, three months before Kelly was indicted.
On the day the account was created Krull began communicating with DeRogatis, a former Chicago Sun-Times reporter and author of the book “Soulless: The Case Against R. Kelly,” according to the motion filed by attorneys Beau Brindley and Vadim Glozman.
The emails, which prosecutors turned over in discovery Monday, indicated that DeRogatis sent Krull a copy of his book, which at that time had not been released to the public, according to the motion.
Krull also references “an earlier oral conversation with Mr. DeRogatis that occurred that same day,” according to the motion.
Two weeks later DeRogatis sent an email to Krull’s burner account asking “if the book was any help,” the motion stated. He also provided information about a conversation he’d had about the ongoing criminal investigation “with a prominent ‘enabler’ mentioned (in his book).”
Krull left the case in 2020 when she transferred to another district of the U.S. attorney’s office. Sources told the Tribune she left Chicago to be closer to an ailing relative.
“Due to the extraordinary nature of these communications, Mr. McDavid asks the court to compel additional discovery about the circumstances of the conversation, how it came to light and its disclosure,” the defense motion stated.
At a pretrial conference Wednesday morning, Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeannice Appenteng said the materials were turned over “out of an abundance of caution” but have no bearing on the criminal trial, which is set to begin Aug. 15. Appenteng said DeRogatis is not a witness and that the government has “never interviewed him.”
Brindley, however, wasn’t buying it.
“We’re troubled by this,” he said. “We want to get more information. It is very, very strange.”
DeRogatis told the Tribune on Wednesday that he was the one to reach out to federal prosecutors in 2019 in an attempt to develop sources in the office.
Ultimately, that effort was unsuccessful, he said.
“Angel never gave me a damn thing,” he said. “No federal prosecutor ever did.”
When DeRogatis reached Krull by phone in spring 2019, introducing himself as a journalist who had been reporting on Kelly for decades, she said she could not speak to him, according to DeRogatis.
“I said, ‘It’s a really complicated story, it goes on 20 years (and) my book is coming out,’ ” DeRogatis told the Tribune.
Krull said she would be interested in seeing the book and gave him the “piedpiper” email address, according to DeRogatis.
“The amount of skulduggery I had to deal with from sources, attorneys and other people for 20-plus years, was I surprised I (got) a weird email? No,” DeRogatis said. “So I sent her the book and I said, ‘Here’s the book. I’d love to chat.’
“And a couple weeks later I said, ‘Was the book helpful? I’d love to chat.’ And I never heard back. Nothing.”
DeRogatis emphasized that federal prosecutors have not contacted him about being a possible witness in the upcoming trial, and he did not provide anyone with information that had not already been reported.
U.S. District Judge Harry Leinenweber told prosecutors to file a written response to Brindley’s motion by the end of the week.
Kelly, 55, was indicted in July 2019 on charges of conspiring with McDavid and another associate, Milton “June” Brown, to rig his 2008 child pornography case in Cook County and hide years of alleged sexual abuse of underage girls.
In June Kelly was sentenced to a 30-year prison term for his racketeering conviction in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn.
He’s appealing both the jury’s verdict and judge’s sentence.
At the hearing Wednesday Leinenweber revealed that a pool of 100 potential jurors would arrive at the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse next week to fill out questionnaires ahead of jury selection — an attempt to weed out ineligible or potentially biased jurors before any in-court questioning. All of the jurors coming in have already indicated that they would be able to sit for a lengthy trial.
Over defense attorneys’ objections Leinenweber ruled that jurors’ names, occupations and other identifying information would not be revealed to the public.
Prosecutors said they worried that Kelly’s die-hard fans would harass jurors if their identities were made known. Attorneys for the defense said jurors could get the idea that they should fear for their safety, which could bias them against the defendants.
Leinenweber noted that there is, in fact, “a rather large group of people … quite active in expressing disagreement with (Kelly’s) treatment,” so the jurors’ identities would remain concealed. But in an effort to address the defense’s concerns, Leinenweber said he will tell jurors they are anonymous simply so that the media do not contact them.
The trial is the biggest to take place since the beginning of the pandemic at Chicago’s federal courthouse, where many COVID19 restrictions remain in place, including masks for anyone not speaking in court, frequent COVID testing for jurors, witnesses and lawyers, and strict social-distancing guidelines.
To accommodate all the parties, the trial is being held in the large ceremonial courtroom on the 25th floor, which has been in high demand.
In fact, Leinenweber was adamant Wednesday that the trial could take no longer than a month, since another trial is slated to start in the ceremonial room in late September.
“We’re going to get it done in four weeks, come hell or high water,” Leinenweber said. “I have a reputation of moving a case along.”
Security is also being beefed up in and around the courthouse to accommodate the throng of media and Kelly supporters expected to attend the trial. Phones will likely not be permitted at all in the courtroom, and court security officers are expected to tightly control the use of electronic devices in an overflow room.
Kelly’s fans and detractors have for years created an echo chamber of bickering on social media, and as Wednesday’s telephone hearing drew to a close some of them began to chime in.
“Love you, Robert Kelly!” said one.
“Free Kellz! Free Kellz!” added another.
At least one detractor also had something to say:
“Keep that pedophile locked up! Lock him up!”