A New York City jury found Kelly guilty of racketeering and multiple other counts last year at a sex-trafficking trial. Prosecutors alleged that the entourage of managers and aides who helped Kelly meet girls — and keep them obedient — amounted to a criminal enterprise.
R. Kelly


More than 200 participants joined the public teleconference call Tuesday morning, which devolved into a yelling match between several people after the judge denied Kelly’s motion.

“The defendant’s concerns do not justify the significant delay in sentencing that his request entails,” U.S. District Court Judge Ann Donnelly said in a ruling Thursday.

The attorney for the convicted R&B singer is asking a federal judge for a delay until later this year, arguing they won’t be able to “protect (his) constitutional rights” at sentencing without compromising his Fifth Amendment rights.

U.S. District Judge Harry Leinenweber appeared to have wanted the trial in Chicago to begin earlier, but he set it for Aug. 1 after one of R. Kelly’s attorneys, Steven Greenberg, said that he another of Kelly’s attorneys will be in trial on other cases through July.

Speaking out against sexual assault and violence is fraught for anyone who attempts it. Those who work in the field say the hurdles facing Black women and girls are raised even higher by a society that hypersexualizes them from a young age.

R. Kelly, the R&B superstar known for his anthem “I Believe I Can Fly,” was convicted Monday in a sex trafficking trial after decades of avoiding criminal responsibility for numerous allegations of misconduct with young women and children.

Prosecutors and defense attorneys finished their closing arguments this week. The 54-year-old singer is accused of running a Chicago-based criminal enterprise that recruited his accusers for unwanted sex and mental torment.

A prosecutor in closing arguments at the sex-trafficking trial of R. Kelly urged jurors on Thursday to make the R&B superstar “pay” for his alleged crimes, while a defense lawyer told them they’ve been misled by opportunistic accusers about consensual relationships.

R. Kelly got away with sexually abusing underage victims for more than two decades by ruling his inner circle enablers with an iron fist, a prosecutor told jurors on Wednesday at the R&B singer’s sex-trafficking trial.

The remark Tuesday by attorney Deveraux Cannick, made with the jury out the courtroom, came as the defense wound down its case at the trial in federal court in New York City.

Prosecutors at the R. Kelly sex trafficking trial ended their case Monday after calling dozens of witnesses over the past month who detailed the government’s sweeping allegations against the singer in lurid detail.

Prosecutors inched closer on Friday to concluding their case at the R. Kelly sex-trafficking trial, calling two final witnesses to try to further cement allegations he groomed young victims for unwanted sex in episodes dating to the 1990s.

Prosecutors, nearing the end of their case at the sex trafficking trial of R. Kelly, played recordings for a New York City jury Wednesday they say back up allegations the R&B singer abused women and girls.

Prosecutors want a New York City jury at the R. Kelly sex-trafficking trial to hear profane video and audio recordings they say demonstrate how he threatened his victims with violence.

She was an unsuspecting radio station intern in 2003 when she pursued what she thought would be a career-making interview with a R&B superstar — R. Kelly. Instead, she had a horrific experience while locked in a darkened room for days, she’s now testified years later.