R. Kelly defense readies as prosecutors finish
NEW YORK — Prosecutors at the R. Kelly sex trafficking trial ended their case Monday after calling dozens of witnesses over the past month who detailed the government’s sweeping allegations against the singer in lurid detail.
Several women and two men who were in Kelly’s celebrity orbit testified about how he groomed them for unwanted sex and psychologically tormented them — mostly when they were teenagers — in episodes dating to the 1990s.
Their accounts were backed in part by former Kelly employees whose own testimony suggested they were essentially paid off to look the other way or actively enable him.
The defense will now begin calling former Kelly employees in an effort to cast doubt on some of the accusers’ accounts.
Kelly’s lawyers must find ways to counter testimony from accusers alleging an array of perverse misconduct spanning three decades.
Among the troubling tableaus — his entourage locking a radio station intern in a room where he sexually assaulted her while she was passed out; witnesses claiming that he gave them herpes without disclosing he had an STD; Kelly shooting a shaming video of one alleged victim showing her smearing feces on her face as punishment for breaking arbitrary rules meant to protect his fragile ego.
A large chunk of the testimony focused on an infamous scandal involving his youngest and most famous alleged victim: R&B phenom Aaliyah. One of the final witnesses described seeing Kelly sexually abusing Aaliyah around 1993, when Aaliyah was only 13 or 14.
The former backup performer also told the jury Kelly sexually abused her as well when she was 15 .