R. Kelly gets new 20-year jail term for child porn crimes

NEW YORK, United States - A US judge on Thursday handed disgraced R&B singer R. Kelly a 20-year prison term for child pornography and other charges -- but he will serve most of it simultaneously with a previous sentence.

Kelly, 56, is already serving a 30-year sentence he received after a Brooklyn jury in a separate federal trial convicted him on racketeering and sex trafficking charges.

The judge in Chicago -- Kelly's hometown, where he was once seen as a source of pride -- ruled that most of the new sentence would be served concurrently with the previous one, with all but one year taken at the same time.

That Kelly will spend a maximum of 31 years in prison is a win for the defense, which urged in its sentencing memorandum that "a concurrent sentence is what fairness demands," accusing the prosecution of engaging in a "quest to ensure that Kelly never sees the light of day."

His lawyer, Jennifer Bonjean, is appealing both of Kelly's federal convictions.

The artist born Robert Sylvester Kelly was convicted in September 2022 on six of 13 counts alleged in the Chicago trial: three counts of producing child pornography and three of enticement of a minor.

The singer known for hits including "I Believe I Can Fly" was acquitted by a federal jury of the seven other counts, including charges that he obstructed justice in a previous trial.

Kelly and two ex-associates had been accused of rigging the singer's 2008 child pornography proceedings in which a jury delivered a verdict of not guilty.

The federal conviction in Chicago came one year after Kelly was convicted in New York of systematically recruiting teenagers and women for sex.

That verdict was widely seen as a milestone for the #MeToo movement: it was the first major sex abuse trial where the majority of the accusers were Black women.

It was also the first time Kelly faced criminal consequences for the abuse he was rumored for decades to have inflicted on women and children.

Agence France-Presse

R&B singer R. Kelly gets May 2020 trial date in sex abuse case

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Singer R. Kelly will face a May 18 trial on charges that he recruited underage girls and women to have sex with him, isolating them and controlling what they ate and when they went to the bathroom, a US judge ruled on Wednesday.

US District Judge Ann Donnelly set the date for next year’s trial, which had been agreed on by prosecutors and Kelly’s lawyers, at a hearing in federal court in Brooklyn.

The 52-year-old R&B singer, known for such hits as “I Believe I Can Fly” and “Bump N’ Grind,” was arrested in Chicago in July on separate sets of charges brought by federal prosecutors in Brooklyn and Chicago. He has pleaded not guilty.

The singer had denied abuse allegations for decades before the latest charges. In 2008, he was tried on child pornography charges and found not guilty.

Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn say Kelly and his entourage invited women and girls backstage after concerts, kept them from friends and family and made them dependent on him financially.

The Chicago prosecutors said Kelly had sexual contact with five minors and recorded sexually explicit videos of some of them. They also accused Kelly of obstructing justice by using threats and bribes, including payments of hundreds of thousands of dollars, to keep his victims quiet.

A trial in Chicago has been scheduled for April 27.

The federal charges were brought after seven women, including his ex-wife, appeared on a Lifetime network television documentary which aired in January and accused him of emotional and sexual abuse. 

Kelly has been in jail since his July arrest, despite his lawyers’ repeated efforts to have him released on bail. Judges in both Brooklyn and Chicago would need to sign off on his release, and Judge Donnelly on Wednesday refused to do so, saying there was a substantial risk he would flee the country.

In addition to the two federal cases, Kelly is facing charges from state prosecutors in Illinois and Minnesota. He has pleaded not guilty to those charges as well.

Reporting By Brendan Pierson in New York; editing by Jonathan Oatis

source: news.abs-cbn.com

New R. Kelly sex abuse tape discovered: lawyer

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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R. Kelly charged with 10 counts of sex abuse in Chicago

R&B superstar R. Kelly was charged Friday in Chicago with 10 counts of aggravated criminal sex abuse against four victims, three of them minors.

A judge approved a no-bail arrest warrant for the 52-year-old, a Cook County clerk told AFP, a major development in the Kelly saga that has seen him for decades accused of child pornography, sex with minors, operating a sex cult and sexual battery.

Kim Foxx -- the State's Attorney for Cook County, which includes Chicago -- told journalists the alleged crimes occurred between 1998 and 2010. A court clerk had earlier told AFP nine of the charges involve minors ages 13 to 16.

The felony charges carry three to seven years of prison time per count and are probationable, Foxx said, adding that Kelly is expected to appear in bond court Saturday afternoon.

Kelly's attorney, Steve Greenberg, did not immediately reply to multiple AFP queries.

The musician has a court date scheduled for March 8 in Chicago, where he resides, a Cook County clerk said.

It's the second time Cook County prosecutors have charged Kelly with a sex crime: after a dramatic trial that also involved a sex tape, the musician was acquitted of 21 counts of child pornography in 2008.

- 'Day of reckoning' -

Kelly, known for hits like "I Believe I Can Fly," has faced renewed public scrutiny after a scathing docu-series shed new light on his checkered past.

High-profile lawyers Gloria Allred and Michael Avenatti are representing clients linked to Kelly, with the latter saying his office had uncovered previously unreleased footage of Kelly having sex with a young girl, which the lawyer gave to the Cook County State's Attorney.

He praised Friday's development: "After 25 years of serial sexual abuse and assault of underage girls, the day of reckoning for R. Kelly has arrived," tweeted Avenatti, who also represents a porn star locked in a legal battle with President Donald Trump.

CNN, which obtained a copy of the tape announced by Avenatti, described it as "clear and explicit." 

The network said two scenes show a naked man who appears to be Kelly engage in several sex acts with a female who calls out "daddy." The audio captured with the images suggests the girl is 14-years-old.

In response to that report the artist's lawyer Greenberg accused women who have spoken out against Kelly of doing so to "make a buck" and dismissed those allegations: "Mr. Kelly denies that he has engaged in any illegal conduct, of any kind whatsoever."

"He would like to be able to continue to write and sing and produce and perform," Greenberg said, adding that Kelly is working on an album.

- 'About damn time' -

Kelly infamously is known for marrying his protege Aaliyah in 1994, when the late R&B star was 15.

The artist, then 27, had produced the teenage singer's debut album titled "Age Ain't Nothing But a Number." Their marriage was later annulled, and Aaliyah died in a plane crash in 2001.

Despite the slew of unsettling claims against him, the decorated musician for years has continued to perform and maintain a solid fan base.

But last month's release of an explosive docu-series entitled "Surviving R. Kelly" once again brought accusations against him to the fore, while a #MuteRKelly movement aimed at preventing his music from airing has gained steam.

"ABOUT DAMN TIME," tweeted prominent women's rights advocate Linda Sarsour of the Chicago indictments.

The latest development came one day after two other women had come forward against Kelly, saying he invited them to a show's after-party in Baltimore in the 1990s -- when they were teenagers -- giving them alcohol and drugs before cornering them in his hotel room and demanding sex.

They were to speak with the US Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, their lawyer Allred had told journalists.

A division of the US Department of Homeland Security devoted to probing sex trafficking meanwhile has a team of dozens looking into alleged crimes against Kelly, according to The New Yorker magazine.

"Black women and girls who come forward with allegations of sexual violence are too often silenced or shamed," said the American Civil Liberties Union in a statement Friday in response to the new charges.

"It's well past time for them to be heard."

source: news.abs-cbn.com