Kelly was acquitted in that trial, but in 2019 county prosecutors brought four new indictments against him, all of which are still pending at Chicago’s Leighton Criminal Court Building. He also faces a case in Chicago’s federal courthouse, where prosecutors allege he and two others fixed his 2008 trial in Cook County. The New York case is the first of Kelly’s many criminal charges to go to trial. In her way of thinking, Cannick said, “I couldn’t get his attention. After years, she went public with a story that Kelly had mistreated her, but it was all for a payday, he said. Pace had met Kelly months earlier at his first criminal trial in Cook County, where he was acquitted of child pornography charges.Ĭannick called Pace a “stalker and a groupie” who cut school and lied about her age to attend Kelly’s trial and showered him with attention but was ultimately scorned by the object of her affection. He also ridiculed testimony from Jerhonda Pace, the prosecution’s first witness in the trial, who told the jury she and Kelly had a six-month sexual relationship in 2009 when she was just 16. Geddes emphasized a video where Kelly was seen telling one victim, “Anna,” that she’d broken his rules and was about to get “four licks.” He then spanked her violently, and later ordered her to walk back and forth on video and call herself a “stupid (expletive),” according to Geddes.Ĭannick said Kelly’s former tour manager, Demetrius Smith, who testified reluctantly for prosecutors, paid the $500 bribe on his own without Kelly’s knowledge. On Thursday, Geddes spent more than two hours talking about the various tactics Kelly used to control his victims, including intimidation, physical abuse, isolation, and indoctrination by setting strict rules. She stitched together testimony from alleged victims and other witnesses with corroborating evidence such as phone records, text messages and DNA tests to paint a picture of Kelly as a controlling and sexually violent predator. The prosecutor methodically reviewed the racketeering charge and the 14 underlying criminal acts Kelly is alleged to have committed in furtherance of the conspiracy. They helped keep them confined to rooms in his Olympia Fields mansion, handed out copies of Kelly’s bizarre “rules,” carried backpacks filled with iPads Kelly used to film sexual encounters, and even offered condoms to one victim before she went in to see Kelly, Geddes said. Attorney Elizabeth Geddes said in her closing argument, which stretched for 6 1/2 hours over two days. To further that goal, Kelly depended on his team to keep victims in line, Assistant U.S. Prosecutors said the organization had legitimate goals, mainly to promote Kelly’s brand and sell his records, but it also had a dark purpose, to recruit and groom girls, boys and young women to satisfy his illegal sexual urges. Throughout the two days of arguments, a large poster board display had been set up in the middle of Donnelly’s courtroom, which included a mug shot of Kelly in the center and various members of his ever-revolving entourage surrounding him. He mocked testimony that traveling with girlfriends consensually across state lines was somehow illegal, as well as other allegations that Kelly demanded his girlfriends refer to him as “Daddy,” which he likened to the words “Papi” in Spanish or “Ho” in Black culture. In his remarks, Cannick said prosecutors were trying to shoehorn small, completely legal acts into criminal racketeering charges. “Some people just like kinky sex,” he said. “He said, ‘This is my lifestyle and you can step into it or not.’”Ĭannick said Kelly prefers, in some instances, “the May to October relationship” of an older man with a “woman slightly younger.” And he acknowledged that Kelly’s preferences when it comes to sex can make many people uncomfortable - but said it’s not illegal. “He told everyone he has multiple girlfriends, and asked each and every one of them their age,” Cannick said. Kelly.’”Ĭannick took the jury back to Kelly’s start in Chicago, where he busked in subway stations before rocketing to fame in the 1990s with hits such as “I Believe I Can Fly.” As Kelly’s star rose, so did his playboy lifestyle, Cannick said, which was encouraged by his record label and never hidden from the women he propositioned. “And you know where they flew to: ‘Surviving R. “His money dries up and they fly away,” he said.
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