“Sex With Young Children”
R. Kelly is back in court
08/18/2022, 5:25 am
A court in New York has already sentenced R. Kelly to 30 years in prison. It may not stay that way. In Chicago, the former R&B superstar is once again in the dock. Now it is about, among other things, the case of a then 14-year-old whose abuse Kelly is said to have filmed in 2002.
At the start of the new trial against ex-pop star R. Kelly, the public prosecutor’s office made serious allegations against the 55-year-old. “Defendant Robert Kelly had sex with several children. He videotaped himself having sex with young children,” prosecutor Jason Julien said in his opening statement in Chicago, according to CNN. Julien also announced that an alleged victim of Kelly would testify: the then 14-year-old was seen in a video that was shot more than 20 years ago and became world-famous. In it, the musician is said to have sexually abused her and urinated on her.
Just a few weeks after his Sentenced to 30 years imprisonment for the abuse of minors in New York, Kelly is indicted in Chicago on 13 counts, including multiple counts of producing child pornography, inducing minors to engage in sexual activity, and obstructing justice. Two of his former employees have also been charged.
The video with the then 14-year-old will play a central role in the process. Kelly was acquitted in a previous trial on the 2008 case. The public prosecutor’s office now accuses him of having put pressure on the victim at the time so that she did not testify in the process.
Kelly’s attorney, Jennifer Bonjean, said in her opening statement to the 12 jurors in Kelly’s presence that the witness’ testimony contradicted her past accounts: “For the past 22 years, she has adamantly denied that it was her in this video . Before it went to criminal investigation, she denied it. She denied it repeatedly to prosecutors, she denied it to social workers and police officers. She denied it under oath before a grand jury.” The process should take about a month. Kelly faces another decade of imprisonment.