CHICAGO (AP) — A woman who has been at the center of R. Kelly’s legal troubles for more than two decades testified Thursday that the R&B singer sexually abused her “hundreds” of times before she turned 18, starting at the age of 15.
Jane — the alias for the now 37-year-old woman at Kelly’s child pornography and obstruction of justice trial — told jurors that in the late 1990s, when she was 13, she asked the Grammy-winning actress to be her godfather because you saw him as an inspiration and mentor.
She said Kelly would call her within weeks and say sexual things. She said he first touched her breasts and other parts of her body when she was about 14 years old, in a recording studio in Chicago, and that he was at his home in his home on Chicago’s North Side around that time “started the penetration”. She told jurors she was 15 when they first had intercourse. Kelly, 55, would have been around 30 at the time.
When asked by a prosecutor how she knew what to do sexually, Jane replied, “He would tell me what to do.” When asked how many times they had sex before she turned 18, she quietly replied: “Countless times. … hundreds.”
Kelly, who is serving a 30-year sentence this year in New York after his conviction for allegedly using his fame to sexually abuse fans, is on trial in his hometown of Chicago on several other federal charges. Among the most serious is a conspiracy to obstruct justice by allegedly rigging a 2008 state child pornography charges trial based on an alleged video of him and Jane having sex when she was a minor.
Prosecutors say Kelly paid and threatened Jane to make sure she didn’t testify at the trial. She didn’t, and he was eventually acquitted.
Kelly is also on trial for producing child pornography and enticing minors to have sex.
Unlike the 2008 trial, Jane has been cooperating with prosecutors leading up to the current trial and is a key witness.
During Wednesday’s opening remarks, prosecutor Jason Julien tried to prepare jurors for testimony from accusers, including Jane, and reminded them that a key issue in the trial remained the exploitation of often frightened and confused children — although the accusers involved with the jury would speak, grown up is grown up now.
Speaking for the first time on Thursday, Jane softly and cautiously described her upbringing in a musical family in suburban Chicago, including being homeschooled because she was in a touring music group that she joined joined when she was about 12 years old.
Jane first met Kelly in the late 1990s when she was in junior high school. She had come to Kelly’s recording studio in Chicago with her aunt, a professional singer who worked with Kelly. Soon after this meeting, Jane told her parents that Kelly would be her godfather.
As she continued her testimony, Jane sounded calmer and more stable, answering questions matter-of-factly.
Prosecutors said Kelly shot the video of Jane in a log cabin room at his home on Chicago’s North Side between 1998 and 2000. The girl can be heard calling the man “Daddy”. Federal prosecutors say she and Kelly had sex at his homes, recording studios and tour buses hundreds of times over the years.
Kelly, who rose from poverty on Chicago’s South Side to become a star singer, songwriter and producer, knew a 2008 conviction would effectively end his life as he knew it, so prosecutors say he did conspired to manipulate this process.
According to prosecutors, Kelly told the parents and Jane to leave Chicago and paid for them to travel to the Bahamas and Cancun, Mexico. When they returned, prosecutors said Kelly tried to isolate Jane and took her to different hotels. When Jane, her father and mother were called before a state grand jury viewing the video, they denied she was in it.
Tears ran down his face on June 13, 2008 when he was acquitted of all child pornography charges. Some of the jurors told reporters after the trial that they weren’t convinced the woman in the video was who prosecutors said she was.
For years prior to the 2008 trial, Kelly carried a holdall full of sex tapes with him everywhere, but some videos were later lost, according to court records. In the 2000s, pirated copies of some videos began to appear on street corners in the United States
In the early 2000s, the aunt showed parents a copy of a video she believed showed her daughter having sex with Kelly. When they confronted Kelly, he told them, “You are with me or against me,” according to a government filing.
The parents took it as a threat.
Kelly, who denies any wrongdoing, has been dogged by complaints and allegations about his sexual behavior for decades. The scrutiny intensified following the #MeToo era and the 2019 six-part documentary, Surviving R. Kelly.
Kelly also faces four charges of seducing a minor into sex – one each for four other accusers. They should testify too.
Prosecutors told jurors the evidence included at least three videos showing Kelly having sex with underage girls.
Two Kelly employees, Derrel McDavid and Milton Brown, are co-defendants. McDavid is accused of helping Kelly fix the 2008 trial, while Brown is accused of receiving child pornography. Like Kelly, they have also denied wrongdoing.
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Follow AP Legal Affairs Writer Michael Tarm on Twitter at https://twitter.com/mtarm
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For AP’s full coverage of R. Kelly’s trial, go to: https://apnews.com/hub/r-kelly