R & B singer Robert Kelly, who faces a battery of sex abuse charges in several US states, appeared in court on Monday as jury selection began in his federal New York trial. All prosperous jurors will remain anonymous and be partly secluded throughout the process. Those selected for the trial will be escorted to and from court by US marshals, which is not abnormal in such high-profile trials. Federal prosecutors charged Kelly, aged 54, with leading an entourage of managers, bodyguards and others to recruit women and girls for him to have sex with and abuse, and to produce pornography, including child pornography. Kelly has pleaded not guilty to a nine-count indictment that includes accusations of rackeering, bribery, extortion and demanding “absolute commitment” from victims, isolating them from friends and family and requiring they call him “Daddy”. Prosecutors said many of the young girls recruited were under 18 years old, who among other disturbing allegations say Kellys “enterprise” facilitated sex without disclosing a sexually transmitted infection the singer had contracted.
The indictment also says part of the ring’s job was to isolate girls and women, and make them “dependent on Kelly for their financial well-being”.
Among the alleged victims listed in the indictment is “Jane Doe”, widely believed to be the R & B singer Aaliyah, who died in a plane crash at age 22 in 2021.
The prosecution alleges that Kelly paid an Illinois government employee in 1994 to obtain a fake ID to marry an underage girl. Kelly notoriously married Aaliyah when she was 15 and he was 27, a union that was later annulled.
R, Kelly’s trial will begin on August 18 and may last for several weeks.
He has been jailed for more than two years.
