NEW YORK - One of the lawyers representing women who claim they were abused by R&B star R. Kelly said Sunday a new video tape had emerged which showed the singer "sexually abusing children."
Kelly is currently on bail after being accused of sexually abusing four women, including three teenagers, between May 1998 and January 2010.
The latest discovery was announced by lawyer Gloria Allred at a press conference where she told journalists it was found by couple Gary and Sallie Dennis in a box of old VHS cassettes at their home.
Neither Allred nor Dennis elaborated on how the tape came to be in the couple's possession.
"Prior to learning that such a tape was in their possession, Sallie had viewed the Lifetime documentary called 'Surviving R. Kelly,'" said Allred.
"She was emotionally very disturbed by what the women in the documentary alleged had happened.
"Sometime after that, Sallie and her husband discovered to their surprise that they had a VHS tape that could be helpful in learning what had happened to these young girls who had come into contact with R. Kelly."
Allred said that while she had not viewed a previous tape that had been widely reported in the media, she did not believe it was of the same act.
She said it showed "what appeared to be R. Kelly sexually abusing children" but declined to go into further detail.
But she urged others who possess such tapes but may be reluctant to admit that they have them to come forward to her or to law enforcement.
Gary Dennis said he had made the discovery while going through old sports tapes and trying to decide which ones to keep and which to throw out.
"He was telling them what to do and what to say, and it appeared that he was controlling the camera," said Denis.
Dennis said that as a father to two daughters himself, he reacted in horror and his first instinct was to throw the tape out, but after discussing the matter with his wife contacted Allred.
The tape is the third to purportedly show Kelly engaging in such acts. The first two have been reported by Michael Avenatti, a lawyer representing other women involved in the case.
Multiple women have come forward since the airing of the six-part documentary in January to say the 52-year-old singer had sexual relations with girls under the age of 16 and kept sex slaves.
The details of the current criminal case echo previous accusations of sexual misconduct that have dogged the artist for the last two decades.
In 2002, he was criminally charged for allegedly filming himself having sex with a 14-year-old girl. He was tried in that case and acquitted of child pornography charges in 2008.
A 2017 BuzzFeed report later alleged he had kept women as virtual sex slaves at homes he owns in Chicago and Atlanta.
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source: news.abs-cbn.com
NEW YORK - A group of former cheerleaders from the Houston Texans suing the NFL delivered a letter to its commissioner Monday, demanding the league end its exploitation of women and pay fairer wages.
Their lawyer Gloria Allred, who filed a case against the Texans on Friday, told the media it was time for cheerleaders to get the respect they deserved and for their salaries to be increased beyond minimum wage.
"Women deserve respect and should be paid for the worth they provide," she said, reading from the letter. "The days when women would accept any crumbs that men would give them are gone -- enough is enough."
Surrounded by four of the five women she is representing, Allred, who previously represented the victims of disgraced TV icon Bill Cosby during his assault trial, said she had given the NFL a week to respond.
In their lawsuit, the women say they were paid just $7.25 an hour for their work and were also subjected to harassment.
It was the latest legal action following similar suits by cheerleaders from two other teams, the New Orleans Saints and the Miami Dolphins.
The issue came to the fore last month after The New York Times reported that said members of the Washington Redskins cheerleading squad who went on a weeklong trip to Costa Rica were pressured into taking topless pictures for a calendar photo shoot -- though the calendar did not feature nude photographs.
Long a staple of American professional sports, some critics have questioned whether the presence of scantily-clad women on the sidelines of games is an anachronism in the #MeToo era.
Allred did not go that far, but suggested that mixed gender cheerleading squads would go a long way toward improving work conditions.
"Usually, when men are in a profession, it brings things up," she said.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
LOS ANGELES, United States - A Californian woman sued supermarket chain Walmart on Friday, accusing the company of implementing extra security measures on products marketed toward black people.
Essie Grundy, 43, says all beauty products marketed for black people are placed in a locked glass case, while cosmetics targeting other ethnicities are freely available at the Walmart near her Perris home, about an hour southeast of Los Angeles.
When she asked a shop employee why the products were under lock and key, Grundy was told it "was a directive from corporate headquarters," longtime women's rights attorney Gloria Allred told reporters.
The employee also told Grundy "she would need to be escorted to the cash register with the product so she could purchase it," Allred added.
When Grundy raised the issue with a store manager, she says she did not receive a clear response, and no action was taken.
Grundy says she also visited two other Walmarts close to her home, and in one cosmetics marketed for African Americans were freely available, but monitored with security surveillance, unlike other products.
"As a result of this discriminatory business practice and policy, we filed a lawsuit this morning against Walmart," Allred said, without specifying the damages being sought.
"It perpetuates a racial stereotytpe that African Americans are thieves."
The lawsuit demands an immediate stop to the practice -- noting the humiliation and psychological trauma Grundy was made to feel.
Grundy, a 43-year-old mother who owns an online clothing business, returned to the shop after the initial incident and filmed the beauty department.
The video was played during the press conference -- showing men's and women's shampoos, body creams and combs of little retail value among other products with labels featuring black models, all arranged in a locked glass case.
"We do not tolerate discrimination of any kind at Walmart. We serve more than 140 million customers weekly, crossing all demographics," the retail giant told AFP in a statement.
"Some products such as electronics, automotive, cosmetics and other personal care products are subject to additional security," which Walmart said individual stores determined "using data."
The issue of Walmart securing beauty products marketed toward black people has already been a topic of controversy in the US -- most notably in Virginia, where the practice was denounced by the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
