Music critic Jim DeRogatis and his employer, The New Yorker, filed a motion asking U.S. District Judge Harry Leinenweber to quash a subpoena filed by Kelly’s co-defendant Derrel McDavid, citing it as “unduly burdensome, unreasonable and oppressive.”
R. Kelly
Kelly told U.S. District Judge Harry Leinenweber on Thursday that he would not be testifying in his own defense at his second federal trial in as many years. One of his codefendants, however, is planning to take the witness stand.
Among the last prosecution witnesses was a 42-year-old woman who went by the pseudonym “Nia.” She was the fourth accuser to testify against the Grammy Award-winning singer at the trial in Kelly’s hometown.
A second alleged victim who claimed R. Kelly sexually abused her while she was a minor in the 1990s, told jurors Monday that she lied during an investigation into the R&B superstar’s past child pornography allegations to conceal her own involvement with him.
Prosecution witness Lisa Van Allen said she rummaged through a gym bag full of recordings of Kelly having sex with women and girls on a rare occasion when Kelly left it unattended at a studio one day in 2000.
Defense lawyers at R. Kelly’s child pornography trial in Chicago sought Wednesday to portray a key government witness as a liar and extortionist, contending the man first approached the R&B star in 2001 and demanded that Kelly pay $1 million or he’d go public with video that could put Kelly in serious legal peril.
Charles Freeman, who had worked for Kelly as a merchandiser in the 1990s, testified that he asked R. Kelly and his associates for $1 million to recover an illicit sex tape in the early 2000s.
The woman — now 37 and identified in court only under the pseudonym “Jane” — is one of the main witnesses at the center of the government’s latest case against Kelly. She was allegedly the 14-year-old girl who later appeared in child pornography videos Kelly allegedly produced.
Opening statements got underway at the Dirksen Federal Building on Wednesday in R. Kelly’s second federal trial, where he stands accused of multiple child pornography-related charges, as well as conspiracy to obstruct justice and enticing a minor to engage in criminal sexual activity.
Jury selection in R. Kelly’s trial began Monday inside a 25th-floor courtroom at the Dirksen Federal Building, where the 55-year-old Chicago native stands accused of multiple child pornography-related charges, as well as conspiracy to obstruct justice and enticing a minor to engage in criminal sexual activity.
Jury selection begins Monday morning at the Dirksen Federal Building downtown, where the 55-year-old Chicago native will stand trial, nearly a year after a New York jury convicted him of sex trafficking and other charges.
R. Kelly goes into Chicago federal court already sentenced by a New York federal judge to 30-year prison term for a 2021 conviction on charges he parlayed his fame to sexually abuse other young fans.
Donnell Russell, 47, of Chicago, entered the plea in Brooklyn federal court. U.S. Attorney Breon Peace said Russell used threats, harassment and intimidation to silence one of R. Kelly’s sexual abuse victims.
Federal records show that R. Kelly is currently being housed in the Metropolitan Correctional Center in downtown Chicago following an extended stay in a New York detention center during his racketeering and sex trafficking trial in that jurisdiction.
A day after R. Kelly was sentenced to 30 years in prison following his racketeering conviction in New York, a federal judge has denied a request to throw out additional charges against the R&B singer ahead of his upcoming trial in Chicago.
R. Kelly has been jailed without bail since in 2019. He’s still facing child pornography and obstruction of justice charges in Chicago, where a trial is scheduled to begin Aug. 15.
