A woman who has been at the center of R. Kelly’s legal troubles for more than two decades testified on Thursday that the R&B singer had sex with her “hundreds” of times before she turned 18, starting when she was just 15.
Jane — the pseudonym for the now 37-year-old woman in Kelly’s child pornography and obstruction of justice trial — told jurors that in the late 1990s, when she was 13, she asked the Grammy-winning singer to become her godfather because she saw him as an inspiration and mentor.
Within weeks, she said, Kelly would call her and say sexual things.
He first touched her breasts and other parts of her body when she was about 14 years old in a recording studio in Chicago, she testified, and about that time he “started penetration” at his home in his North Side Chicago. .
Jane said she was 15 when they first had intercourse. Kelly, 55, would have been about 30 years old at the time.
Sometimes, she testified, they would have sex with other teenage girls she would recruit at Kelly’s request.
With her testimony on Thursday, Jane was the first former victim to speak out about what she’s reportedly endured in the R&B star’s ongoing lawsuit.
He is charged by the Chicago federal court with enticing minors into sex, producing child pornography, and rigging his 2008 pornography trial.
Prosecutors say Kelly paid off, threatening Jane and her family to ensure she wouldn’t testify at a similar trial in 2008. She didn’t and he was eventually acquitted.
However, now 55-year-old Kelly is serving a 30-year sentence for his conviction in a New York City earlier this year on other federal charges alleging he used his fame to sexually abuse fans.
Two other minor victims are also expected to testify in the Chicago trial.
R Kelly is on trial in his hometown of Chicago on charges of producing child pornography and seducing minors into sex. He is pictured here at a hearing in 2019
In court on Thursday, Jane revealed that she first met Kelly when she was 13.
She was in a music group at the time and Kelly – a friend of her aunt – attended one of their performances and gave her good feedback.
“It made me happy that such a successful person said I was gifted, so I was excited,” Jane testified according to the Chicago Tribune.
She said her aunt advised her to ask Kelly to be her godfather, explaining that her aunt had told her, “I have to sit on his lap and rub his head and ask him to play that part in my life. ‘
Jane said she was obliged, and Kelly ‘grinned a little and said ‘yes’.
But soon the relationship turned sexual, Jane claimed, and he began making explicit phone calls.
In at least one case WGN-TV reports, she said Kelly asked her what color her underwear was, and told her he was enjoying himself as they spoke.
Kelly first gave her alcohol when she was 14, Jane said, and she started drinking heavily.
“It would help me loosen up, take me away from the moment a little bit,” she said.
By the time she was 15, she said, they started having sex, and when a prosecutor asked her how she knew her exact age, Jane replied, “Because that’s when I lost my virginity.”
From there, Jane said, they would have intercourse at Kelly’s home on West George Street, at his Near West Side recording studio, on tour buses and in hotels.
When asked by a prosecutor how she would know what to do sexually, Jane replied, “He would tell me what to do.”
And when asked how many times they had sex before she turned 18, she calmly replied, “Countless times… Hundreds.”
R. Kelly was previously acquitted of all charges of child pornography at a trial in 2008. Prosecutors now say he paid off a victim to prevent her from testifying at the time
Unlike the 2008 trial, Jane worked with prosecutors leading up to the current trial and is a key witness.
Prosecutors have said Kelly made an explicit video of Jane in a log cabin-themed room in his North Side Chicago home between 1998 and 2000. In it you can hear how the girl calls the man ‘daddy’.
Retired Chicago detective Daniel Everett also testified on Thursday that he had been given the tape by a former Chicago Sun-Times journalist and immediately recognized Jane in the footage, though she had denied being involved.
Prosecutors now say Kelly, who rose from poverty on Chicago’s South Side to become a star singer, songwriter and producer, knew a 2008 conviction would end his life as he knew it, and so he conspired to overturn that trial. to solve.
According to prosecutors, Kelly told Jane and her parents to leave Chicago and make sure they could travel to the Bahamas and Cancun, Mexico.
When they returned, prosecutors said Kelly tried to isolate Jane by moving her to different hotels. When she was summoned to a state jury investigating the video, Jane, her mother and father denied that she was in it.
Tears streamed down his face on June 13, 2008, when he was acquitted of all charges of child pornography. Some jurors told reporters after the trial that they were not convinced the woman in the video was who prosecutors said she was.
R. Kelly’s attorneys Jennifer Bonjean, left, and Ashley Cohen, are pictured walking into the Dirksen Federal Courthouse in Chicago on Wednesday morning
But according to court records, Kelly carried a duffel bag full of sex tapes everywhere he went for years before the 2008 trial, but some tapes were later lost.
In the 2000s, illegal copies of some videos appeared on US street corners
At the same time, Jane’s aunt showed the parents a copy of a video that she said showed their daughter having sex with Kelly. When they confronted Kelly, he said, “You’re with me or against me,” a government file says.
The parents considered it a threat, prosecutors say.
Jurors at the Chicago trial are now shown the graphic video of the disgraced singer allegedly having sex with Jane.
Jurors also heard Thursday from Matthew Hulsizer, who bought Kelly’s former home in Lakeview (pictured), where he reportedly filmed at least one of the videos.
Jurors also heard Thursday from Matthew Hulsizer, who bought Kelly’s former home in Lakeview, where he reportedly filmed at least one of the videos.
Hulsizer said that after moving in, he discovered that a smoke detector in at least one bedroom hid a small hidden video camera, and to leave that room you had to press a button.
Kelly, who has denied any allegation, has been dogged for decades by complaints and accusations about his sexual behavior. Following the #MeToo era and the 2019 six-part documentary Surviving R. Kelly, the investigation intensified.
Kelly also faces four charges of seduction of minors for sex – one from four other accusers. They are also expected to testify.
Prosecutors told jurors the evidence includes at least three videos of Kelly having sex with underage girls.
They say Kelly and those in his inner circle have paid hundreds of thousands of dollars over the years in an effort to track down the videotapes and prevent them from seeing the light of day.
Two of Kelly’s associates, Derrel McDavid and Milton Brown, are co-defendants.
Both are charged with conspiracy to receive child pornography, while McDavid is also facing two counts of receiving child pornography and one count of conspiracy to obstruct justice in the 2008 trial.
Like Kelly, they have also denied wrongdoing.
Milton ‘June’ Brown walks into the Dirksen Federal Courthouse in Chicago as opening statements were expected to begin in R. Kelly’s trial Wednesday morning. He serves as a co-defendant in the trial, accused of helping Kelly resolve a similar 2008 lawsuit
Derrel McDavid, center, is also accused of helping Kelly resolve the 2008 trial
US assistant attorney Jason Julien said during opening statements on Wednesday that much of the world knew Kelly from his hit song “I Believe I Can Fly,” but argued that was not the case. “Kelly’s public side.”
“Kelly had another side… a hidden side, a dark side,” he said. “This trial is about Kelly’s hidden side.”
Julien tried to give the judges an idea of the extent of Kelly’s alleged exploitation by saying that he had “repeatedly” had sex with girls as young as 14, 15 and 16 – “multiple girls, hundreds of times.”