R. Kelly: Prosecutors say singer sexually abused underage boy
The Federal prosecutors in R Kelly’s sex trafficking case unveiled a host of new allegations against the disgraced Pop Star. They said the singer had sexual contact with an underage boy – in addition to girls – and feel that jurors need to hear the claims in the upcoming trial.
R KELLY SEXUALLY ABUSED UNDERAGE BOY
In a court filing on Friday, 23 July, prosecutors presented the new range of allegations against R Kelly (born Robert Sylvester Kelly) but no further charges were pressed. Prosecutors feel that jurors need to hear the allegations as they paint a picture of R Kelly’s alleged criminal enterprise of managers, bodyguards and other people in his employ that helped him rope in women and girls for sex, pornography and control over them.
R Kelly maintains his innocence and denies abusing anyone. The charges involve six unnamed women and girls.
17-YEAR-OLD ASPIRING MUSICIAN PROPOSITIONED
The prosecutors said they want jurors to hear accounts of more than a dozen people – not including the six women and girls – that were allegedly abused, threatened or mistreated by R Kelly when the trial begins later this year. Jury selection is expected to begin on 9 August in a New York federal court.
One of the accounts is that of a 17-year-old aspiring musician that R Kelly met at a McDonald’s in December 2006 and invited to his Chicago recording studio.
The Associated Press (AP) reports that the singer propositioned the boy and eventually engaged in sexual activities with the boy after asking him what he would do to make it in the music business, according to the court filing submitted by prosecutors.
The boy also introduced R Kelly to a friend of his who was 16 or 17 at the time. Prosecutors said the singer also began a sexual relationship with the boy several years later and he filmed the boys having sex with other people including some of his girlfriends.
Prosecutors also allege that when R Kelly was due to stand trial for sexual abuse charges in 2008 he asked the first boy – who had access to one of the jurors – to get in contact and vouch that he was a “good guy.” R Kelly was infamously acquitted in that case – the filing does not say whether the boy complied with his request.
According to AP, prosecutors believe the accounts of the boys and others illustrate that the crimes he is charged with were not isolated events.
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