R. Kelly Charged in 2 Federal Indictments With Sex and Abuse Crimes
According to federal prosecutors in Brooklyn, the famed singer and his traveling entourage, from managers and bodyguards to drivers and personal assistants, used Kelly’s power, influence and music to recruit women and girls to have illegal sexual activity with him.
July 12, 2019 at 04:08 PM
5 minute read
The original version of this story was published on New York Law Journal
Calling him a “musician turned predator,” federal officials in Brooklyn and Chicago on Friday unsealed separate indictments against the famed R&B singer R. Kelly charging him with a range of crimes linked to allegedly illegal, exploitative and abusive sexual conduct with women and children.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York released a five-count superseding indictment charging Robert Sylvester Kelly with a two decades-long racketeering enterprise in which, according to the indictment and an associated news release, Kelly and his traveling entourage, from managers and bodyguards to drivers and personal assistants, used Kelly’s fame, power and music to recruit women and girls to engage in illegal sexual activity with him.
The Brooklyn prosecutors’ indictment also charged Kelly with several Mann Act violations tied to his alleged interstate transportation of a victim to New York for the purpose of engaging in illegal sexual activity, and linked to him allegedly exposing her to an infectious venereal disease without her knowledge.
Kelly, age 53 and a resident of Chicago, faces the potential of decades in prison based on the Eastern District of New York federal charges alone. According to news reports, he was arrested on Thursday evening outside of his home in Chicago, while stepping outside to walk his dog and smoke, by New York City police detectives and federal Department of Homeland Security officers.
In Chicago, meanwhile, prosecutors charged the internationally known singer in a 13-count indictment with federal child pornography and obstruction-of-justice charges.
On Friday afternoon, Kelly appeared at a removal hearing at a federal courthouse in Chicago, but he did not enter a plea to either indictment, according to a spokesman for the Eastern District of New York prosecutor’s office. But he consented to detention at the hearing until his next court appearance Tuesday in Chicago, where detention issues and removal to the Eastern District will be addressed, the spokesman said.
Kelly’s lawyer, Steve Greenberg of Greenberg Trial Lawyers in Chicago, could not be immediately reached for comment on Friday. But in a letter posted on Greenberg’s Twitter account, which did not appear to be addressed to anyone in particular, he said that “the conduct alleged appears to largely be the same as the conduct previously alleged against Mr. Kelly in his current State indictment and his former State charges that he was acquitted of.”
Greenberg added the Kelly has a defense team of “outstanding federal litigators” and that “he and his lawyers look forward to his day in court, to the truth coming out and to his vindication from what has been an unprecedented assault by others for their own personal gain.”
Eastern District U.S. Attorney Richard Donoghue said in his office’s news release Friday that “as alleged, R. Kelly, together with employees and members of his entourage, engaged in a racketeering enterprise that preyed upon women and girls who attended his concerts so that the victims could be available to engage in illegal sexual activity with him at a moment’s notice.”
Donoghue added, “This indictment makes clear that fame and power will not shield anyone from prosecution, particularly predators who victimize vulnerable members of our communities for their own sexual gratification.”
Said Homeland Security Special Agent-in-Charge Angel Melendez in the same news release, “The musician turned predator allegedly used his stardom to coax some victims into nefarious sex acts while certain members of his enterprise calculatingly facilitated the aberrant conduct.”
According to the indictment unsealed in Brooklyn federal court, members of Kelly’s longtime alleged racketeering enterprise “expected to receive financial opportunities and personal benefits, including increased power and status” for acting on behalf of Kelly with women and underage girls.
The indictment and Donoghue’s office’s news release alleged that, once Kelly identified girls and women he wanted to see, he would direct members of his enterprise to escort them backstage at a concert or to events following his performances. He would also then exchange contact information with girls and women so that he and other enterprise members set up travel and lodging for them to visit with Kelly and engage in illegal sexual conduct with him.
Once Kelly had established a relationship or some type of bond with the women, he would then allegedly issue “rules” that many of his sexual partners had to follow, the indictment and news release said. The rules included that the women and girls must call him “Daddy”; they couldn’t leave their rooms to eat or use the bathroom without his permission; they had to wear baggy clothing when not accompanying him to an event; they were told to keep their heads down and not look at other men; and Kelly allegedly isolated the women and girls from friends and family, making them sometimes fully dependent on him for their financial survival.
Prosecutors in Brooklyn also issued a 9-page letter on Friday to the Brooklyn federal judge handling Kelly’s case, arguing that he must be detained pending his removal to and trial in the Eastern District.
“There is no combination of conditions that would reasonably assure his continued appearance in this case or protect the safety of the community were he to be released,” they argued in part of the letter.
Kelly has been at the center of sexual abuse allegations for nearly two decades, according to news reports, and he currently faces state charges in Illinois.
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