CHICAGO-
A woman who says R. Kelly sexually abused her hundreds of times when she was a minor testified Friday that several years ago she agonized over whether to cooperate with federal investigators who were looking into child abuse allegations involving the singer. , but finally she did because she didn’t want to “carry her lies”.
Hours before jurors first saw sexually explicit videos at the heart of the prosecution’s attempt to prove that Kelly produced child pornography and successfully rigged her 2008 child pornography trial, the woman, now 37, and calls herself “Jane” during the trial. current trial, she admitted that even after she began to cooperate, she lied when she told officers that she was not sure if Kelly had molested minors besides her. She said that she lied because she didn’t want to get others in trouble.
Jane testified for more than four hours Thursday, saying it was her and Kelly on a videotape that was the focus of the 2008 trial, in which she was acquitted. She also said that Kelly sexually abused her hundreds of times beginning in the late 1990s before she turned 18. Kelly, 55, was in her 30s at the time.
While questioning her on Friday, Kelly’s lead attorney, Jennifer Bonjean, tried to cast the R&B singer in a more favorable light after Jane testified the day before about how Kelly sexually pursued her when she was around 14 years old.
Kelly has been dogged for decades by accusations about his sexual behavior. The scrutiny intensified during the #MeToo era and following the 2019 release of the Lifetime television documentary series “Surviving R. Kelly.”
When questioned, Jane said her relationship with Kelly lasted 12 years and continued for two years after her trial in 2008, until she was 26. Bonjean asked if “after they broke up, they cared about him and he cared about you.” “. Jane said that was true.
As “Surviving R. Kelly” came out, Jane said she was worried about Kelly and approached him. In a text message to him, she wrote: “I love you. Don’t let the devil win.”
She said she repeatedly tried to contact him in 2019 for advice as she considered whether to speak to authorities about Kelly for the first time. She told the jury: “I felt comfortable enough to approach him because I was scared.”
She decided soon after to talk to investigators.
“I didn’t want to carry his lies anymore,” he said.
Kelly, who denies any wrongdoing, was sentenced to 30 years in prison by a federal judge in New York earlier this year for a 2021 conviction for using his fame to sexually abuse fans. For the duration of the current trial, he will be held in a federal prison in Chicago, his hometown.
Prosecutors say Kelly intimidated and paid the girl, Jane, to ensure she did not testify at the 2008 trial to identify herself and Kelly in the critical video, which the government says Kelly made in a room with the subject. of a log cabin on its North Side. Chicago home circa 2000. Jane testified Thursday that she was the girl, then 14, in the video and that Kelly was the man in it.
It was one of three videos prosecutors played excerpts from Friday that they said showed Kelly sexually abusing a minor, Jane. Before the videos played on the monitors in front of each juror’s chair, court officials set up tall, opaque screens around the jury that prevented reporters and onlookers from seeing the videos and the jurors’ reactions. sworn before them.
However, the sound was heard throughout the courtroom, and in one video, the girl can be heard repeatedly calling the man “daddy.” At one point, she asks, “Dad, do you still love me?” She is also heard giving the man sexually explicit instructions.
Earlier, prosecutors suggested any public viewing of the videos could violate child pornography laws, asking Judge Harry Leinenweber to send reporters and viewers out of the courtroom while jurors watched. . The judge denied the request.
After her acquittal at the 2008 trial, some jurors said they had no choice but to acquit Kelly because the girl, by then an adult, did not testify. On the stand Thursday, Jane admitted that she lied to a grand jury in 2002 when she said she was not the one in the video.
Jane has testified that she met Kelly through an aunt who worked with him and that she asked Kelly to be her godfather when she was 13 years old. She told the jury that she was 15 years old when they first had sex.
Kelly, who rose from poverty on Chicago’s South Side to become a star singer, songwriter and producer, knew a 2008 conviction would effectively end his life as he knew it, so prosecutors say he conspired to fix it. that trial.