Kelly. The series explored how an entourage of supporters protected Kelly and silenced his victims for decades, foreshadowing the federal racketeering conspiracy case that landed Kelly in jail in 2019. The women's stories got wide exposure with the Lifetime documentary Surviving R. It was a reprieve that allowed his music career to continue until the #MeToo era caught up with him, emboldening alleged victims to come forward. The openings and testimony came more than a decade after Kelly was acquitted in a 2008 child pornography case in Chicago. Kelly, 54, is perhaps best known for his smash hit I Believe I Can Fly, a 1996 song that became an inspirational anthem played at school graduations, weddings, advertisements and elsewhere. Kelly had sexual contact with underage boy "They knew exactly what they were getting into. Kelly," she said, urging jurors to closely scrutinize the testimony. "What his success and popularity brought him was access, access to girls, boys and young women," she said.īut Kelly's attorney, Nicole Blank Becker, portrayed her client as a victim of women, some of whom enjoyed the "notoriety of being able to tell their friends that they were with a superstar."
The prosecutor said Kelly would often record sex acts with minors as he controlled a racketeering enterprise of individuals who were loyal and devoted to him, eager to "fulfil each and every one of the defendant's wishes and demands." She said he distributed backstage passes to entice children and women to join him, sometimes at his home or studio, where he then "dominated and controlled them physically, sexually and psychologically." Attorney Maria Cruz Melendez told the jury as she explained the evidence to be revealed at his federal trial. "This case is not about a celebrity who likes to party a lot," Assistant U.S. (Elizabeth Williams via The Associated Press) 'Case is about a predator,' says prosecutor Pace said Kelly told her to tell people she was 19 years old. In this courtroom sketch Jerhonda Pace testifies against R&B star R.
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Prior to Pace's testimony, lawyers gave jurors an outline of the trial in their opening statements.
Pace has appeared in a documentary and participated in media interviews. The Associated Press doesn't name alleged victims of sexual abuse without their consent unless they have spoken publicly extensively. She kept a blue T-shirt from the episode that has provided DNA evidence of the misconduct, prosecutors said. Kelly's sex trafficking trialĪfterward, he spit in her face and forced her to have oral sex, she said. They continued to see each other for another six months, with Kelly growing more and more controlling and erupting in violence when she broke what she called "Rob's rules." One time he grew so angry, "He slapped me and choked me until I passed out," she said with no hint of emotion. Kelly responded "that's good" when she revealed her virginity, said that he wanted to "train her" sexually and ordered her to call him "Daddy," she said. "He asked me to continue to tell everyone I was 19 and act like I was 21," she said. He immediately told her to take off her clothing, Pace said. Jerhonda Pace, the first government witness, told jurors Wednesday that she was a 16-year-old virgin and a member of Kelly's fan club when he invited her to his mansion in 2010. The differing perspectives came as the long-anticipated trial began unfolding in a Brooklyn courtroom where several accusers were scheduled to testify in the next month about the Grammy-winning, multiplatinum-selling singer whose career has been derailed by charges that have left him jailed as he goes broke. Kelly is a predator who lured girls, boys and young women with his fame and dominated them physically, sexually and psychologically, a prosecutor said Wednesday, while a defence lawyer warned jurors they'll have to sift through lies from accusers with agendas to find the truth. Warning: This story contains sensitive details related to sexual abuse
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