‘Case about predator’
R. Kelly slammed on 1st day of B’klyn trial
Chart-topping singer and Grammy-winner R. Kelly’s trial on sex trafficking charges hinges on one fact about his character, a prosecutor said in her opening statement Wednesday.
“This case is about a predator,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Maria Cruz Melendez said in Brooklyn Federal Court. “A man who for decades used his fame and popularity ... to target and groom boys, girls and young women for his own sexual gratification.”
Prosecutors’ first witness in the trial underscored Melendez’s points. Even when he was on trial in 2008 for creating child porn, R. Kelly’s minders had their eyes out for teens who would party with him, said Jerhonda Pace, 28, who was once a Kelly superfan.
Pace said she and a fellow fan first met Kelly at the child porn trial in Chicago, which ended in his acquittal on all counts.
About a year later, Pace said, she was contacted by one of Kelly’s “runners,” identified in court as Bubba, who invited her to a party at the singer’s suburban Chicago mansion. She stayed less than 30 minutes and left.
Kelly soon invited her back to the mansion with a directive to bring a bikini, Pace said. Once she arrived, he ordered her to put on the bathing suit on and then come back to strip for him.
“I did as I was told,” said Pace, describing how Kelly then picked her up and brought her to the games room, where he began a performing sexual act upon her.
“I felt uncomfortable,” recalled Pace. “I told him I was actually 16.”
Angry, Kelly ordered Pace to tell his crew she was 19 and further to “act 21.”
“He bent me over the back of his sofa and took my virginity,” she said. “He told me he was going to train me sexually.”
It was the beginning of a monthslong relationship during which Kelly ordered Pace to have his name tattooed on her breast and was often physically violent when she disobeyed his rules — like the time she said she supported the Cleveland Cavaliers NBA team, when his favorite team is the Chicago Bulls.
Kelly “told me that I was disrespecting him,” she said. “He slapped me in my face, backhanded.”
In the defense’s opening statement, Kelly lawyer Nicole Blank Becker, countered the prosecution by denying all the charges during a rambling talk to the jury. “Some of these relationships that Mr. Kelly had were beautiful,” Becker said, adding the government was acting like her client was a Mafia boss.
“The government wants you to believe that our client, an internationally known singer, someone they want you to believe is the leader of some large enterprise, is like John Gotti, the leader of a crime family,” said Becker.
Also Wednesday, prosecutors identified by nicknames or first names the six women tied to the charges in the indictment, who were known until now as Jane Does 1-6.
One victim they highlighted was Aaliyah, whom Kelly allegedly impregnated in 1994 when she was just 15 and then forced into an illegal marriage.
Aaliyah was a performing artist and actress who had a mysterious friendship with Kelly. She died in a plane crash in 2001. “If she’s his wife, she can’t testify against him,” Melendez said, explaining Kelly’s logic for marrying the teen.
Kelly and his crew secured a fake ID stating Aaliyah was 18. The R&B superstar and underage singer nicknamed the “Princess of R&B” were married in a hotel suite by a pastor.
Four of the six victims were minors when Kelly began sexual relationships with them, Melendez said.
One victim, identified as Sonya, was 22 when she met Kelly in Salt Lake City while working as an intern at a radio station. Sonya wanted to interview Kelly for her station, Melendez said.
Kelly told her to visit him in Chicago at his studio for the interview.
But when Sonya arrived, she was locked in a room in Kelly’s studio for three days, begging to be released, fed or allowed to use the bathroom, the prosecutor said.
Kelly’s associates allegedly told her that they couldn’t help her without the singer’s approval.
Eventually, one of his associates gave her cold Chinese food and a Coke. She immediately became drowsy and passed out, Melendez said.
“She woke to find her underwear had been taken off and there was a wetness between her legs,” Melendez said.
Sonya knew she had been sexually abused, Melendez said.