R Kelly verdict: What has he been charged with?
SINGER R Kelly was convicted of pornography charges in a Chicago court while two co-defendants were cleared of all charges.
The singer’s trial came a year after he was convicted of sex trafficking charges in 2021.
What was R Kelly charged with?
R Kelly, whose legal name is Robert Kelly, had his first trial in New York in 2021 where he faced faced a total of nine charges, including one count of racketeering, with 14 underlying acts that included sexual exploitation of a child, kidnapping, bribery, and sex trafficking charges.
He also faced eight additional counts of violations of the Mann Act, a sex trafficking law.
Kelly was found guilty of nine counts, one count of racketeering, and eight counts of violating the Mann Act.
Read More On The Sun
The charges were based on an argument that the entourage of managers and aides who helped the singer meet girls — and keep them obedient and quiet — amounted to a criminal enterprise.
During the trial, several accusers testified in lurid detail, alleging that Kelly subjected them to perverse and sadistic whims when they were underage.
After the verdict was reached, Jacquelyn Kasulis, acting US attorney from the Eastern District of New York released a statement regarding the singer, saying: “Today's guilty verdict forever brands R Kelly as a predator, who used his fame and fortune to prey on the young, the vulnerable and the voiceless for his own sexual gratification."
Kasulis added that Kelly is "a predator who used his inner circle to ensnare underage girls and young men and women for decades, in a sordid web of sex abuse, exploitation, and humiliation.
MORE ON R KELLY
"To the victims, in this case, your voices were heard and justice was finally served.”
Following Kelly's trial and conviction in New York, a judge ruled that he would spend 30 years in prison following his conviction.
Nearly a year after the New York trial, Kelly was brought to court in Chicago, Illinois where he faced charges of 13 counts of child pornography.
A grand jury found Kelly to be guilty of six counts of child pornography on September 14, 2022, and he is set to be sentenced on February 23, 2023.
He is facing between 10 and 90 years in federal prison, which will be added to the 30-year prison sentence he received for his convictions on sex trafficking and racketeering charges.
Kelly currently owes $140k in fines and fees, and a court will determine what he will owe the families in restitution in a hearing toward the end of September 2022.
Why was R Kelly found guilty?
A woman spoke out during Kelly's second trial in Chicago, using the pseudonym, Jane, to protect her identity.
She told the jury that she first met Kelly through her aunt when she was 12 years old.
Jane said she had visited Kelly several times and when she was 14 years old, her aunt suggested he play a bigger role in Jane's life, so he was named her godfather.
After that, she said her parents felt more comfortable and had her stay with Kelly, but it was then that she claimed the sexual advancements began.
“They would pretty much drop me off and then leave,” Jane testified.
She claimed the first time they were physical was when she was 15 years old, adding that she lost her virginity to the R&B singer.
But when the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services got involved in 2000 and started investigating, she said she lied and told them there was nothing going on between her and Kelly.
Reports resurfaced in 2002 when a tape of Kelly having sex with Jane, who was still a minor, appeared online.
Although she had denied the allegations, now ten years later, she testified to the jury that Kelly had a conversation with her ahead of time, talking about “loyalty” and “denying our relationship and the sex tape.”
The jury ultimately found Kelly guilty of three counts of enticing minors for sex and three counts of producing child sexual imagery.
He was not convicted of one count of obstructing justice in his 2008 trial when he was accused of fixing his state child pornography trial.
After the verdict was read Kelly's lawyer, Jennifer Bonjean, criticized the prosecutors who "charged counts that they couldn't win."
Speaking on the six charges Kelly was acquitted of, Bonjean said: "Obviously we are not celebrating a win, but are happy the jury looked at each count."
Kelly still faces charges of aggravated sexual abuse in Illinois and prostitution and solicitation charges in Minnesota.
Who is R Kelly's lawyer?
Jennifer Bonjean has become a known defense attorney for those charged under the #MeToo movement.
She served as the attorney for Bill Cosby who was charged with sexual assault and succeeded in getting his conviction overturned in 2021.
She has also defended the former leader of the Nxivm sex cult, Keith Raniere when he appealed his sex trafficking conviction and was sentenced to 120 years in prison.
“Everyone’s entitled to a vigorous defense,” Bonjean said in an interview, reported.
Bonjean remains critical of women who testify in the courtroom, she said in her closing arguments in Kelly's trial.
“We are in an era of ‘believe women’ and I agree, but not in the courtroom,” Bonjean told the jury.
“We don’t just believe women or believe anything. We scrutinize. There’s no place for mob-like thinking in a courtroom.”
Bonjean told The Times she considers herself to be a feminist but said her defense of men accused of sexual misconduct toward women ";will not always be consistent with sensitivity to a victim’s feelings.”
“I’m supposed to be some type of ambassador — a vagina ambassador,” she said, adding: “Seriously, I get a lot of those questions like somehow I am traitorous to women by taking on these cases.”
READ MORE SUN STORIES
Read More on The US Sun
However, Bonjean has received pushback for her aggressive approach to questioning women who accuse her clients of sexual misconduct.
Lawyer Debra S. Katz has represented high-profile sexual misconduct accusers told The Times: “Everybody deserves a defense, but to attack women in this way is, in my view, absolutely unconscionable."