The first witness is important in such a criminal trial that should move the world, perhaps even shake it. Your testimony sets the tone, for the twelve jurors in the courtroom, but also for the public, and if what Jerhonda Pace said in court in Brooklyn, NY on Wednesday was the overture for the next few weeks, then it will a long, filthy, and elusive trial of Robert Sylvester Kelly, better known as R. Kelly. The allegations against him are numerous and serious, not only that he should have made women compliant and filmed having sex against their will, but also about the sexual abuse of minors.
Pace was 16 years old when she met the entertainer in 2008 – at the time he was on trial for child pornography and he was acquitted. She had fallen for him, he had shamelessly exploited it. She had to call him “Daddy”, and what happened when she didn’t, she found out pretty quickly: “He slapped me and choked me until I passed out. He spat in my face and said I did should lower my head in shame. ” Then he forced her to perform sexual acts on him.
This is the picture that the prosecutor wants to paint, a total of six women at the trial – including the late singer Aaliyah, who married Kelly when she was just 15 years old. The title of their debut album: “Age ain’t nothing but a number” – age is nothing but a number. Kelly produced this album. “This is about a monster,” said Prosecutor Maria Cruz Mendelez of Kelly, 54: “He has abused his celebrity, popularity and network to take advantage of young people for his sexual pleasure.” He used every trick in the sex offender’s manual, treating people like things and, for example, requiring them to have sex when and with whom Kelly wanted it. He demanded “absolute obedience”.
Cross-examining pace
The defense paints a completely different picture of what happened, and the first day is an indication of how extraordinarily complicated it is likely to be to bring about a conviction without a doubt – this is the standard in this criminal process. During cross-examination, Pace said that when she met Kelly, she told Kelly that she was 19 years old. Although she gave her age before the first sexual intercourse (“He told me to tell everyone that I was 19 – and should act like 21”), these are exactly the doubts that the four defenders of Kelly had want to sow: super fans who do pretty much anything to get their idol; who lie and seduce. Groupies who are obsessed with the world star and who then want revenge should not get a relationship.
If convicted, Kelly would be imprisoned for at least ten years with the maximum sentence for the rest of his life. Because the allegations are so grave, it will also involve relationships that were long ago. The marriage with Aaliyah in 1994 only happened because Kelly’s environment believed she was pregnant – and questions about the father would have been devastating for Kelly. Officials were bribed to get a fake ID for the singer, and then they got married in a hotel room. The defense claims that Kelly was set up again. After all, Kelly had always denied that she admitted in a hearing that the singer had sexual intercourse with Aaliyah when she was still a minor.
It’s going to be a long process, but maybe it has to be. The next witness is only identified as “Zel”. She had met Kelly at a concert, in the hotel room he had persuaded her to sleep with him – not out of love or lust; but how he told her because he had to relieve himself. He was 48 years old at the time. Zel was 17.