In January 2019, Lifetime aired Surviving R. Kelly, a docuseries with first-hand accounts of Kelly’s rape, kidnapping, abuse and assault of dozens of girls and women for decades. It was the first time anyone had really listed all of the crimes Kelly had gotten away with, and it was one of the first times so many of his victims got to speak on camera about what he did to them. Suddenly, the criminal justice system couldn’t move fast enough. About one month after Surviving R. Kelly began, Kelly was brought up on multiple assault charges. The dominoes began to fall quickly, and in May, June and July of 2019, the case against Kelly just kept getting bigger. The feds were brought in and they added sex trafficking and racketeering charges. Sh-t got real. Kelly’s trial began five weeks ago and it seems like the prosecution did a great job of making their case. It only took two days of deliberations for the jury to come back with their verdict: guilty.
A federal jury found R. Kelly guilty on all nine counts Monday in his sex trafficking and racketeering trial, the U.S. attorney’s office for the Eastern District of New York announced. The disgraced R&B singer, 54, could face decades in prison over nearly 30 years’ worth of allegations that he physically and sexually abused women and minors.
The verdict follows five weeks of testimony from 50 witnesses and arrives on the second day of jury deliberations. Kelly was found guilty on one count of racketeering, a charge that is often involved with organized crime, and eight of violating the Mann Act, which is aimed at curbing sex trafficking. He still faces additional federal charges of sexual assault and abuse in Illinois.
The 45 witnesses called on by prosecutors described an elaborate system of abuse supported by Kelly’s immense fame and professional power, as well as by the cooperation of his employees and close associates. As widely described in reports from the trial, numerous accusers — including one man — testified that they were underage when they met Kelly, who they said went on to control their lives.
A woman alleged that she was forced into sexual encounters with other women and was unable to leave rooms without Kelly’s permission. Another said he knowingly gave her herpes, an assertion seemingly backed by a personal physician who took the stand to discuss Kelly’s medical history. One witness claimed that Kelly forced her to have an abortion. Another said Kelly told her he married Aaliyah in 1994, when she was 15, so that the up-and-coming singer could have an abortion.
I read some legal analysis that the racketeering charges were the thread that helped Kelly’s victims tell their stories. It’s not that the state of Illionis thinks racketeering is a more significant crime than serial rape, it’s that the state wanted to be able to make their case with as many rape victims as they could get to testify, and the racketeering charge enabled that. As for the Aaliyah story… that poor young woman was abused by Kelly from the age of 14. And to all of his victims: you are believed.
Only a few national and local reporters were allowed in the courtroom when the verdict was read. According to the NYT reporter in the room, Kelly’s reaction was “the occasional clench of his jaw; his eyes seemed to be looking straight ahead at the table. At the end, he stood and buttoned his suit as the jury filed out through a side door.”
Photos courtesy of Backgrid, Getty.
Evil, evil man.
Yes, as I watched the documentary I remember thinking how sinister he appeared to be. A predator in every sense of the word. He was brought to justice and I hope his victims can begin to heal. Although that will take time and the scars will remain.
Does anyone know if his enablers will be brought to justice?
I hope so, Seraphina. Now that they’ve got him, I hope they’ll go after all his enablers and yes-people.
I was abused and assaulted at a similar age to Aaliyah, so I find this story pretty triggering – forgive me if I don’t return to comment further.
You read my mind @ Seraphina! Yes, bring all of them down!!
@ Andrew’s Nemesis, I am incredibly heartbroken for you. My hope is that you are surrounded by those who truly love and care for you. May the day come when you find peace. Sending virtual hugs to you 🤗
I hope they get all of the enabling creeps. My girlfriend and I were out in Chicago and she saw him and his entourage at a restaurant/bar we had just arrived at. She literally shoved us out right back out the door telling me that R. Kelly was there and we couldn’t stay.
I was visiting from LA and we were 2 girls out by ourselves, so its pretty clear now why she wanted us to run for it. Holy cr*p.
I definitely did not get it at the time and she was not specific. But let’s face it, you had/have to watch your drink on a regular night out. Not to mention a place packed with people happy to dr*g you for a famous predator.
My heart goes out to you @AN – I echo Bothsidesnow sentiment.
Yes @ Serapina.
@Andrew’s Nemesis, thank you for sharing this. I am so sorry.
@Andrew’s Nemesis — I always enjoy your comments, they’re intelligent, heartfelt and often very funny. However it breaks my heart that you’ve been through such horrific situations. I have been sexually abused several times, and it’s left me scarred too. Sending you hugs.
It’s a travesty that it took so long for his victims to get justice.
100 percent.
A travesty and yet I never thought it would happen so I was absolutely stunned yesterday at the news. There’s no justice for Aaliyah but for all the others there is finally.
Yes it is.
Completely agree. My first and main thought when I saw he was convicted was: FINALLY. After hiding in plain sight for decades, this is long overdue, and I’m so glad to see justice in some way at least.
Jim De Rogatis is an unsung hero in this mess. If anyone had paid attention to the stories he began writing for the Chicago Sun Times two decades ago after he followed up on a video that landed on his desk, this talented POS would have been behind bars a long time ago.
https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/r-kelly-is-found-guilty-on-all-counts-twenty-five-years-too-late
YES!! I commented below but couldn’t remember his name. I remember hearing whispers about his expose but no one really paid attention until it was re-published in a national magazine. Then people only focused on R Kelly and Aaliyah’s marriage and basically ignored everything else. His work finally received long overdue credit when the Surviving R Kelly documentary came out.
Did you read his book, “Soulless?” A tough but important read, and I think one of the reasons the Netflix documentary was made.
Honestly, De Rogatis should get a Pulitzer for this. He’s a hero in my mind.
I came here to say the exact same thing. I remember when no one was listening to him, and kudos to him for never giving up on behalf of Kelly’s victims.
It pisses me off that nobody believed his legitimate reporting. It was reported by a white man, but it was still about Black girls, boys, and women’s pain so authorities didn’t care until the documentary called out the neglect and incompetence of the state to protect children. That’s the power of art, particularly first person accounts on film. Thank you Dream Hampton!!
R Kelly’s behavior was discussed on the Black blogs for years. I’ll never forget reading someplace that women protect other women through gossip; I think it was in one of Kaiser’s Me Too posts.
I stopped supporting him decades ago because it was well known in some places that he had sex with kids and married Aaliyah as a child.
Thank you for covering this here.
Good, I’m glad to see rich and powerful abusers taken down, but it really angers me how Celebrity and money help these abusers hide in plain sight for years.
Exactly. Meanwhile public school teachers get paid how much? Our whole priority system is so messed up.
He deserves to die in prison for what he did to those girls, women, and at least one boy. His “harem” already had all the makings of a cult, and he clearly got off on pushing the envelope and getting away with all this depravity. Who knows how far he would’ve taken it if he hadn’t finally been held accountable?
Such an absolute travesty and a damn shame. All that God-given talent for what??! Those demons were ALLOWED and ENABLED for money only. No one gave a shit about all those innocent CHILDREN. Grateful justice is finally being served, but others also need to charged for covering up this monster’s behavior.
A victory for the people he preyed on. They need to charge his ‘inner circle’.
Federal prison and hell when he leaves this planet still isn’t enough.
I hate this dude.
So much I am pretty confident my blood boils as a result.
And when are his enablers and staff gonna start getting charged?
a Tiffany, I am so glad that he was found guilty on all counts!! I think about his interview with Gayle King and his complete meltdown of crying out that he WAS the victim, clearly made it apparent to all watching that he was using the handbook of abusers, it’s not ME!!! I’m innocent!! Now, go after his enablers now, as they ALL participated in his disgusting actions. And I hope when he gets to prison he gets the welcome he deserves as all predators of girls get!!
About time! So who are the prominent and rich assholes who enabled him for all these decades and what did R Kelly do that caused his protection to finally be withdrawn? After all, these stories have been out there for years, especially in Chicago. Actually, a Chicago journalist wrote an expose about him in the 1990s which outed his marriage to Aaliyah and talked about him preying on minor girls and how his victims/families got paid off. It was basically ignored.
As happy as I am about this news, I would love to see the rest of the enablers, especially the prominent and well connected ones, prosecuted as well. Surely they can at least be charged with conspiracy, among other things. I hope his victims will finally be able to heal. some of the things he did went beyond horrific. He’s truly an evil evil man.
Aaliyah met Kelly when she was 12 years old so he had years to groom her. That beautiful angel never stood a chance and her family basically sold her to him. After her parents got the marriage annulled, she was victim blamed and shamed. Aaliyah had a hard time getting producers etc to work with her on her second album until she was paired with Timbaland and Missy Elliott (R Kelly “wrote” and produced her first album). Then her career really took off. IIRC, her parents got ownership over some of RKelly’s masters after the annulment. I’m glad she was listed as a Jane Doe in this court filing but am upset that her family still remains silent. That must be one extremely ironclad NDA. I
Her uncle Barry Hankerson, who was RKellys Manager and owned the record label she was signed to, introduced her to him and had her work with him. What exactly and how much did he know? Hope he’s being investigated too. After almost 2 decades, Uncle Barry is finally able to make money off her again – he, not her parents, owns her masters and he recently said her music will be available again and playing on music streaming channels. Hope we get new music too. I still can’t believe that Uncle Barry used to be married to Gladys Knight.
@ Chantal, this is so upsetting and unbelievably disgusting and disturbing on too many levels. I did not know ANY of these details you have shown.
Aaliyah suffered for several years with no one to be there for her, her parents are trash, add with the fact that her uncle was exploiting her as well.
When are they going to be charged? I don’t think he should be allowed to own her music and the platforms should DENY her recordings, as BARRY is the only one benefiting from her art. Uncle Barry deserves to be Kelly’s cellmate, along with her parents as well.
I agree with you in regards to including Aaliyah as well, even if she was mentioned as Jane Doe. She deserved justice, as well as all of the girls, women and boy, whose lives he has permanently destroyed, as they will have to live with these scars for the rest of their lives. I hope that compensation is distributed between ALL of his victims as they need the tools to allow them to heal.
@BothSidesNow I never realized how strong and brave Aaliyah was! She was able to overcome all of that and graduate from high school with straight A’s while RKelly’s career soared. I hate that her name is forever tied with his.
Exactly, Chantal. People knew. A LOT of people knew. I knew because of people in the music business and the blogs. In the 1990’s.
When her album came out and Aaliyah and he were promoting it on BET – what was the name of that show with all of the young people in the audience where they’d show videos? – and it was clear that he was having sex with her. The next time I saw that was with Courtney Stodden, but Aaliyah was not high. She called Kelly her “best friend”. She was 14 or 15. She had to have been married already.
May that man rot in hell…
Long overdue verdict.
Finally.
And I hope everybody who knew about it and kept their mouth shut, spend the rest of their lives feeling guilty about what he did to kids. And those who “helped” need to be charged too.
I honestly used to think I was losing my mind; every few years stories would come out about him and people would act like it was new….then nothing would happen and he’d have some new hit single or be featured on a track with a huge artist (looking at you Gaga). I often used to wonder if I’d imagined the stories because he was still such a prominent celebrity. It’s crazy how for so long the allegations were brushed under the carpet all the while he kept going. He really did think he was invincible. I’m so glad that the women finally got some justice.
I think it’s important to point out that not all of Kelly’s victims were minors. Some of the women in the documentary were in their 30s when they met him. This type of abuse is more about controlling and humiliating the victim than about anything else. It’s horrible what he did to those teens. But adults can be vulnerable to abuse like this as well when you’re talking about a person who is a master level manipulator.
That is the face of someone who is used to intimidating and buying his way out of accountability. I have no doubt he will see himself as a victim for the rest of his life, which I sincerely hope is the same unending circle of hell to which he consigned his victims.
Of cause he would they all do Harvey Weinstein, Bill Cosby, Johnny Depp and more all see themselves as victims. It’s never going to be there fault, but the victims fault.
It seems really significant to me that so many Black victims were finally heard – something that our justice system is not usually great at.
SO HAPPY he was found guilty.
I hope he wakes and hates every last remaining day of his life.
He’s a piece of Sh*t that deserves nothing but the worst to happen to him. Along with anyone who covered for him and his fans.
The culture is changing its hard to believe was not found guilty the first time when there was evidence against him.
So now in order to get justice, every rape victim in the world will have to have a documentary made about her assailant. Yes, that’s how bad it is. In the U.S. alone, I believe over 90 percent of alleged rapists are acquitted (I actually believe it’s 97 percent, but I haven’t fact-checked that yet).
Maybe QEII will award R. Kelly with a jubilee medal. 🤷♀️