R. Kelly Criminal Case: Timeline of Allegations


For twenty-five years, the singer playing the role of R. Kelly has faced allegations that he sexually abused minors, often luring them through music and helping them launch their own musical careers.

In 2017 and then again in 2019, public scrutiny increased. #MuteRKelly campaigna series of protests and boycotts of his music and “Surviving R. Kelly”, a documentary featuring testimonies of several women who accused the singer of harassment.

However, the 54-year-old artist settled civil complaints against him and was acquitted in 2008 in a high-profile criminal case against him on child pornography charges. This case was the first criminal prosecution of Mr. Kelly.

A second criminal case begins Monday in federal court in Brooklyn, where Mr. Kelly is present. paid extortion, kidnapping, forced labor and Mann’s Law violations.

These violations include coercing and transporting women and girls to engage in unlawful sexual activity in interstate commerce. Mr Kelly, who has been in custody since 2019, pleaded not guilty in both cases.

Angel M. Melendez, the special agent in charge of Homeland Security Investigations, was among those who disclosed the charges in July 2019.

“As claimed, for two decades, the venture under the direction of R. Kelly has preyed on young women and teenagers whose dreams of meeting a superstar soon turned into a nightmare of rape, child pornography and forced labor,” she said. in a statement In that case. “The musician turned predatory, allegedly using his stardom to entice some victims into despicable acts of sex, while some members of his enterprise calculatedly facilitating abnormal behavior.

“R. Kelly believed he could fly, but it would be justice to see his oppressive wings clipped.”

The day these charges were announced, a separate federal indictment was filed in Chicago against the singer. There, she faces charges of pornography and blocking. The Chicago trial, originally scheduled for September, now appears to be “on an indefinite hold”, said US deputy attorney Jeannice Appenteng. told the judge In July.

Steven Greenberg, one of Mr. Kelly’s lawyers, spoke to reporters in February 2019.

“Mr. Kelly is strong, has a lot of support and will be cleared of all these charges,” he said. “One by one if necessary.”

Here’s the timeline of the accusations against a singer whose popularity has been declining since the early 2000s. His latest album “12 Nights of Christmas” was released in October 2016.

“Age Is Nothing But A Number”

In the early 1990s, R. Kelly met his protege “R&B Princess” Aaliyah, the young niece of his manager. He produced his debut album “Age Ain’t Nothing but a Number”, released in May 1994, from the title track written by him.

Three months later Mr. Kelly, 27, married Aaliyah Dana Haughton, who was 15 in Chicago but registered as 18 on her marriage license. (In “Surviving R. Kelly,” Demetrius Smith, Mr. Kelly’s former personal assistant, said, “I had forged papers for them. But Aaliyah was underage.”

(Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn in December 2019 accused Mr. Kelly for bribing an Illinois government employee the day before the wedding to obtain a false identity for Aaliyah. At the final preliminary hearing before Mr. Kelly’s hearing on Monday, US District Judge Ann Donnelly managed He said the jury would be allowed to argue how Mr. Kelly had sexual relations with Aaliyah when he was a minor.)

lawsuits begin

Between 1996 and 2002, at least four separate women filed lawsuits against Mr. Kelly. In December 1996, Tiffany “Tia” Hawkins, then a high school student, to sue Mr. Kelly, $10 million, Chicago Sun-Times reported in December of 2000. Ms Hawkins said the two started having sex in 1991, when she was 15 and she was 24. Two years after the lawsuit, Mr. Kelly settled with Ms. Hawkins for $250,000. In the same year, the singer won three Grammys for her song “I Believe I Can Fly”.

In 2001, Tracy Sampson filed a lawsuit accusing the singer of forcing her to have sex with him when she was 17. This case was also settled out of court.

Two more cases in 2002: A woman said she was underage when Mr. Kelly impregnated her and forced her to have an abortion. Another woman said she was unwittingly videotaped during sex. Both cases have been reported by Chicago mediaand both were settled out of court.

Video, indictment, acquittal

Music critic and reporter Jim DeRogatis reported on events in Chicago at the time and continued. investigate the charges Against Mr Kelly.

In February 2002An anonymous videotape was left in the mailbox at Mr. DeRogatis’ home. The tape showed Mr Kelly having sex with a young girl and pissing on her. The Chicago Sun-Times, where Mr. DeRogatis was working at the time, began investigating.

Also in February 2002, Chicago police revealed their own investigation into Mr. Kelly on the same day he made the opening ceremony of the 2002 Winter Olympics. Four months later, the musician was indicted by a grand jury on 21 child pornography charges in Chicago.

The trial of the case took more than five years. Mr. Kelly pleaded not guilty, and in June 2008 – after less than a full day of deliberation – a jury acquitted him of all charges.

A renewed reckoning

In July 2017, two things happened in quick succession: Mr. DeRogatis published an explosive article with the headline:Inside the Pied Piper of R&B’s ‘Cult’It started to attract attention with BuzzFeed and the #MuteRKelly campaign. The article reported the disturbing allegations that the singer lived with several young women and controlled every aspect of their lives.

Four months after this article was published, Mr. DeRogatis wrote about his experience in The New Yorker. “Even 17 years of reporting hasn’t been enough to illuminate Kelly as brightly as he’s exposed many others.” He wrote“because no one, it seems, is less important in our society than young Black women.”

Oronike Odeleye, co-founder of #MuteRKelly, felt this emotion firsthand. He started a petition to get Mr. Kelly’s music off the Atlanta airwaves and the momentum, powered by the power of #MeToo, spread across the country.

For example, in April 2018 Tarana Burke, Founded the #MeToo movementasked radio broadcaster Tom Joyner to stop supporting Mr. Kelly. Mr. Joyner swore to stop Playing the singer’s music on the “Tom Joyner Morning Show”.

So far “R. Getting Rid of Kelly”

After Lifetime released the documentary “Surviving R. Kelly” in 2019, the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office started to take “Many” searches were made for alleged abuse, and authorities began investigating these allegations.

In the documentary, radio broadcaster Mr. Joyner was interviewed.

“The more we talk about it, the more we see what R. Kelly has done historically over and over again,” he said. “And then all these cases that he solved, we have to keep pushing. And keep pushing until you get some indictments.

“For some reason it’s Teflon. And I don’t understand that. I don’t understand why the justice system failed to bring him to justice.”

Later that year, Mr. Kelly paid 10 new cases of aggravated sexual abuse in Chicago by Cook County prosecutors. Three of the four victims identified in the case were young women aged 13 to 16 when the events were said to have occurred.

There is no set trial date for these counts. That will remain so until the federal criminal cases of Mr. Kelly are finished.

In July 2019, five months after Chicago authorities indicted Mr. Kelly, the singer was again arrested in Chicago, this time with federal prosecutors filing a 13-number indictment that included seducing a minor, obstruction of justice and child pornography.

That same day, federal prosecutors in Brooklyn filed a separate indictment, the case that began Monday with jury selection. The charges, which include one racketeering and four charges of violating the Mann Laws, involve five unnamed women, three of whom were underage at the time.

While Mr. Kelly’s federal case in Chicago is pending, the racketeering case unfolds in Brooklyn; judge set up a status hearing for August 17.

If Mr. Kelly is found guilty, up to 20 years in prison.



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