USA TODAY International Edition
R. Kelly walks a ‘minefield’ of possible charges
Charges could come, but questions abound
Documentary on Lifetime puts media spotlight back on the R&B star’s past behavior. But questions remain.
Could R&B superstar R. Kelly be the next Bill Cosby: investigated, charged and convicted of sex crimes?
At the moment, it looks possible that Kelly could at least end up like Harvey Weinstein and Kevin Spacey, two men at the top of the #MeToo list of highprofile men who have been charged with sexual assault and will soon face trial in New York and Massachusetts.
And, like them, Kelly faces professional ruin: Sony Music has decided to part ways with him, according to Variety and The Hollywood Reporter.
But it’s not a sure thing that Kelly will end up in the legal dock, lawyers say, for a variety of reasons. Money is one of them.
“You need evidence and that takes a long time to gather, and that is especially true when you’re talking about a potential defendant with substantial assets,” says Andrew Stoltmann, a Chicago criminal defense attorney who has been following the Kelly saga.
Stoltmann believes the #MuteRKelly boycott and his ever-worsening reputation have put Kelly under financial strain. “But he still has the ability to generate more revenue than the average defendant...”
What’s next in the R. Kelly saga? USA TODAY spoke to a variety of lawyers to decode the intricacies of the cases.
What is the story about R. Kelly?
For about two decades, Robert Sylvester Kelly, 52, has faced allegations of sexual abuse of women and girls, including sex with underage girls and accusations that he trapped scores of female fans in a “sex cult” that cut them off from their families and subjected them to degrading abuse.
“Kelly has been walking through a minefield – and he’s not quite hit a mine yet,” Stoltmann says. “He’s come extremely close. It would be hard to believe that he doesn’t end up like a Weinstein or a Spacey or a Cosby.”
Only once has Kelly been accused of a crime. In 2008, prosecutors in Chicago charged Kelly with making a disturbing sex video with a 14-year-old girl. But it wasn’t clear who was in the video, and the teen refused to testify at his trial. The jury acquitted him on all counts within hours.
Kelly recently hired a new lawyer to speak for him in the wake of the #MuteRKelly campaign and the growing number of accusers and music stars speaking out against him. Chicago lawyer Steve Greenbergsays that Kelly is innocent and that the allegations against him are lies and “a whole lot of nothing.”
What’s new now?
A decade later, outrage about Kelly’s behavior has reached a crescendo thanks to the dogged efforts of some of Kelly’s “rescued” women and the parents of others still allied to him.
But most of all it’s because of a sixpart film aired on Lifetime, “Surviving R. Kelly,” in which scores of women came forward on camera to accuse Kelly of shocking abuse.
Now other media are jumping on the Kelly story. “Dateline NBC” is airing “Accused: The R. Kelly Story,” an hour-long broadcast on Friday(10 p.m. ET/PT) that features interviews with several women who accuse Kelly of sexual abuse and physical violence.
Tracy Sampson, a former Epic Records intern, told “Dateline” she had a relationship with Kelly that she says started when she was 16 and lasted until she was 18, when she broke it off and accused him of sexual abuse. “I was in love with him,” she says. Kelly denied having sex with her but settled with her out of court for $250,000.
Some of his concert dates have been canceled. Celebrities speak out against him. Music peers distance themselves and condemn their former collaborations. Crusading attorney Gloria Allred holds a news conference with Kelly accusers who are suing him. Protesters demonstrate at his concerts or at his rented Chicago studio, from which he is being evicted. Chicago building inspectors get a court order to enter the building and find code violations.
And, suddenly, prosecutors in Chicago and in Fulton County, Georgia, outside Atlanta are making moves to open investigations of Kelly.
What is happening in Chicago?
The Cook County State’s Attorney, Kim Foxx, called a news conference last week to talk about Kelly, calling the testimony by women in the “Surviving R. Kelly” film “sickening.” But first she had to appeal for Kelly accusers and witnesses in Cook County to come forward.
Foxx can’t bring a case without a complaining witness, and she has to evaluate an accuser’s story: Is there evidence, and how strong is it? If an accusto er doesn’t have physical evidence, such as DNA, does she have texts, emails, audio or video? And does the alleged crime fall within the statute of limitations?
What is happening in Georgia?
Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard Jr isn’t talking about his intentions, but others are convinced he has opened an investigation.
Atlanta-area lawyer Gerald Griggs represents the parents of Joycelyn Savage, who claim Kelly has made their daughter a “sex slave” (although she denies it). Griggs says Howard’s office called him after “Surviving R. Kelly” aired, seeking contact numbers for some of the women featured in the film.
“All of this (the film) started with information (collected) by my client, Mrs. Savage, who’s been investigating Kelly since 2016,” Griggs told USA TODAY. “Ninety-five percent of why all this is happening now is because of her and her persistence.”
Have the Kelly allegations come up in Georgia before?
Howard has been aware for at least 18 months of the allegations against Kelly on his patch of Georgia, including an Atlanta suburb called Johns Creek where Kelly rented two homes.
In the summer of 2017, BuzzFeed published “Inside the Pied Piper of R&B’s ‘Cult’ “by Chicago-based journalist Jim DeRogatis, who has been pursuing the singer for 17 years. DeRogatis interviewed relatives of women allegedly living with Kelly in either Johns Creek or Chicago at the time. The parents and others in Kelly’s inner circle claimed the women who live with him are forbidden contact their families, must ask his permission to go anywhere (even the bathroom) or communicate with anyone, and are required to call him “Daddy.” They also said Kelly filmed his sexual encounters with the women.
In 2017, Howard and the Johns Creek police told Atlanta reporters they were not investigating Kelly. Griggs believes the “Surviving R. Kelly” film 18 months later increased the pressure on the district attorney to do something.
Why charge Kelly in 2019 when he wasn’t charged in 2017?
Pressure because of the film could be a reason for the new interest by prosecutors, even though that’s not supposed to (and usually doesn’t) have any effect on the decision to prosecute, says Randall Kessler, a former Georgia prosecutor who teaches a class on jury trials as an adjunct professor at Emory University School of Law in Atlanta.
“As to why wasn’t it prosecuted back in 2017, there are many potential answers,” Kessler says. “One reason is that new evidence or witnesses could have surfaced. Or the defendant may have done or said something that can now be used against him.”
What crimes could Kelly be charged with?
Griggs says there are a “host” of potential charges, including statutory rape, at least in Georgia. “False imprisonment, aggravated assault, family-violence battery, kidnapping,” Griggs says. “My feeling, based on my knowledge and practice, if they speak to the witnesses that were in the documentary, they can find sufficient cause. I’ve seen people indicted for far less.”
What are the potential problems in prosecuting Kelly?
Joe Habachy, an Atlanta criminal and entertainment lawyer, says sex crimes are tough to prosecute in general because there’s almost never a “smoking gun.” “There’s usually no forensic evidence,” Habachy says. “In almost every sex case I’ve handled, there isn’t any physical evidence, so it really is hesaid-she-said.”
Details can corroborate the accuser’s testimony, such as an email or a video with a date stamp. “If you throw 25 charges (at a defendant) and 23 fall by the wayside, it doesn’t matter if you can convict on one or two. That’s what (prosecutors) bank on.”
Besides lack of physical evidence, Stoltmann says, a Kelly defense attorney probably would argue that the alleged crimes are too old to prosecute. “The average juror is going to say: Why wait a year or five years to come forward?” Stoltmann says.
What role will “Surviving R. Kelly” play in a trial?
Nobody thinks the film could be admissible as “evidence.” In fact, it’s doubtful that anyone who saw the film could sit on a jury judging R. Kelly given that the film contains elements that would not be admissible at trial.
“A documentary is not evidence, so the answer would be no, it would not get in,” Habachy says. “You want impartial people reviewing the case because your client’s life is in their hands.”