“Sex With Young Children” R. Kelly is back in court
08/18/2022, 05:25
A New York court has already sentenced R. Kelly to 30 years in prison. It might not be like that. In Chicago, the former R&B star is once again in the dock. Now it is, among other things, the case of a 14-year-old boy whose abuse Kelly is said to have filmed in 2002.
At the start of the retrial against former pop star R. Kelly, prosecutors made serious charges against the 55-year-old. “Defendant Robert Kelly had sex with several children. He recorded himself having sex with young children,” prosecutor Jason Julien said in his opening statement in Chicago, according to CNN. Julien also announced that an alleged victim of Kelly would testify: the then 14-year-old was seen in a video that was filmed over 20 years ago and became world famous. In it, the musician is said to have sexually abused her and urinated on her.
Just weeks after being sentenced to 30 years in prison for molesting a child in New York, Kelly faces 13 counts in Chicago, including multiple counts of manufacturing child pornography, inducing a young man to engage in sexual activity and obstructing justice. Two of his former employees were also charged.
The video with the then 14-year-old will play a central role in the process. Kelly was acquitted in an earlier trial in the 2008 case. The prosecution now accuses him of having pressured the victim at the time not to testify in the case.
Kelly’s attorney, Jennifer Bonjean, said in her opening statement to the 12 jurors in Kelly’s presence that the witness’ testimony contradicts her previous accounts: “For the past 22 years, she has vehemently denied that it was her in this video. she denied it. She repeatedly denied it to prosecutors, she denied it to social workers and police. She denied it under oath before a grand jury.” The process should take about a month. Kelly faces another decade in prison.