R. Kelly Picked Up Victim at His Child-Porn Trial, New Documents Allege
As the singer is held in lieu of $1-million bond, his defense lawyer offered a ‘rock star’ defense.
R. Kelly picked up one of his underage sex abuse victims at his 2008 child pornography trial, prosecutors charged Saturday.
The 16-year-old asked the R&B artist for his autograph outside the Chicago courthouse where he was defending himself against allegations he made a sex-tape with a 13-year-old.
“The victim told R. Kelly how old she was and he invited her to his house,” prosecutors said in a court document known as a bond proffer.
The singer allegedly had oral and vaginal sex with the girl over the course of eight months and “would spit on her, slap her and choke her,” the proffer alleges.
The teen saved a shirt she wore during one encounter, and police found Kelly’s semen on it, the prosecutors said.
The graphic details—and those involving other girls—were disclosed as a judge ordered Kelly held on $1 million bond, and as his defense attorney said his client would not participate in non-consensual sex.
“He did not force anyone to have sex,” attorney Steve Greenberg said after his client’s appearance. “He’s a rock star. He doesn’t have to.”
Kelly, who was acquitted after his 2008 trial, has been hit with new charges of sexually abusing three teenagers and trying to force his 24-year-old hairdresser to perform oral sex.
This time, Cook County prosecutors say, they have video and DNA evidence that corroborates the victims' claims.
Kelly’s lawyer told reporters “he’s presumed innocent” and insisted his client is “not to be tried in the media.”
Greenberg, also said that he’s “not aware of any other investigations” in other jurisdictions.
The alleged victims include a woman who was 14 years old when Kelly videotaped himself having sex with her in 1998. Prosecutors said a witness who was asked to retrieve the video eventually turned it over to authorities.
“In the video, the victim repeatedly says she is 14 years old and Robert Kelly is seen penetrating the victim orally and vaginally, and the victim performs oral sex on Robert Kelly,” according to the bond proffer.
Another alleged victim met Kelly when she was at a restaurant, celebrating her 16th birthday, the document says. She also told Kelly that she was 16. The performer’s manager gave the girl a card with Kelly’s personal phone number.
While her mother took the card, and told the manager that her daughter was 16, the girl later took it out of her mom’s purse and called Kelly, who according to the proffer told the girl to take a cab from her school to his studio.
“The victim followed Robert Kelly’s instructions,” the document states, further alleging that he had “difficulty maintaining an erection and penetrated the victim repeatedly vaginally and orally.”
Kelly then told her to get an envelope with money from his receptionist. While she thought this was to pay for her cab rides, “the envelope contained a large sum of money, more than was needed to pay for two cab rides.”
These encounters took place monthly from May 1998 to May 1999, the proffer claimed.
Kelly is also accused of abusing his former hairdresser in 2003. The woman, who was 24 at the time, was waiting for Kelly in a room, “so she could braid his hair. When Kelly walked in, he allegedly said “he didn’t want his hair braided that day, he wanted his head massaged.”
“At the time he said this, Robert Kelly had his pants pulled down and he was pointing to his penis,” the bond proffer alleges. “Robert Kelly grabbed the victim by the head and tried to force her mouth onto his exposed penis but the victim was able to resist.”
Kelly touched himself and ultimately, spit on her face several times. She turned over the shirt that she was wearing for DNA testing. “The male DNA identified in the semen sample is a match to Robert Kelly’s DNA profile,” according to the bond proffer.
