A controlling R. Kelly barred his live-in girlfriends from watching a documentary series that portrayed him as a sexual predator and kept watch over them during an interview with Gayle King, one of the women testified Tuesday at the R&B singer’s sex-trafficking trial. 

This is a racketeering case. Prosecutors say R. Kelly physically, sexually and psychologically dominated children — girls and boys — and women, often recording sex acts with minors, and using a cadre of loyalists to do his bidding and recruit victims.

A key accuser  at the R. Kelly sex-trafficking trial returned to the witness stand on Thursday, weeping when a prosecutor asked her to read out loud from a journal entry describing how he allegedly beat and choked her the last time they were together in 2010.

R&B star R. Kelly is a predator who lured girls, boys and young women with his fame and dominated them physically, sexually and psychologically, a prosecutor said Wednesday, while a defense lawyer warned jurors they’ll have to sift through lies from accusers with agendas to find the truth.

Most people know him for “I Believe I Can Fly,” the 1996 sing-along hit. Or possibly for a stinging parody by comedian Dave Chappelle. But starting this week, what prosecutors say was a not-so-secret dark side of R&B superstar R. Kelly will be presented in lurid detail for a jury in New York City.

R&B star R. Kelly will face an anonymous jury made up of seven men and five women when his New York City sex trafficking trial goes forward next week with opening statements.

After several delays, the first phase of the sex trafficking trial of R&B hitmaker R. Kelly started Monday with jury selection in New York City.

R&B star R. Kelly gained weight and lost money while he awaits a sex-trafficking trial that starts in earnest next week, his lawyers said Tuesday at a court hearing.

R. Kelly’s lawyers said Monday they would fight prosecutors’ bid to tell jurors about allegations beyond the actual charges  at his upcoming federal sex trafficking trial. 

Federal prosecutors in R. Kelly’s sex trafficking case say he had sexual contact with an underage boy in addition to girls, and the government wants jurors in his upcoming sex trafficking trial to hear those claims. 

With less than two months until his federal racketeering trial is set to begin, the R&B star has been transferred out of Chicago’s Metropolitan Correctional Center and into a new detention facility in New York City.

Two months ahead of his upcoming racketeering trial in New York, R&B star R. Kelly is seeking to part ways with the two Chicago-based attorneys who have been handling his many criminal cases.

Robert Kelly has been held in Chicago, where he’s facing a potential second trial in the fall in a separate federal case related to a sprawling sex crimes investigation.

The 53-year-old R&B star has been behind bars since his arrest in July 2019 and two trial dates, for April and then October this year, were earlier struck. His new trial date is Sept. 13, 2021. 

R. Kelly can remain behind bars awaiting multiple trials on child pornography and other charges in three states, an appeals court in New York said Tuesday.

Attorneys for R. Kelly want to question a convicted member of the Latin Kings gang who says he beat up the jailed R&B singer in a Chicago cell.