CHICAGO (CBS) –  R. Kelly saved “a hidden side, a dark side” to his life as he rose from poverty to music stardom, federal prosecutors instructed a jury Wednesday as they started making their case accusing Kelly of filming himself having intercourse with women, and conspiring to rig his 2008 youngster pornography trial in Cook County.
Kelly is happening trial on a 13-count indictment, together with youngster pornography and obstruction of justice costs. Two associates, former enterprise supervisor Derrel McDavid and former assistant Milton Brown, are being tried alongside him.
As anticipated, each side confirmed up on the Dirksen Federal Courthouse on Wednesday prepared for battle.
The prosecution began by laying out the guts of the case in opposition to R. Kelly in blunt phrases.
 “The defendant R. Kelly had sex with multiple children. He made video tapes of himself having sex with multiple children,” Assistant U.S. Atty. Jason Julien instructed the jury, including that McDavid and Brown knew all about it.
Julien instructed jurors most of the world knew Kelly solely as a well-liked R&B singer, however mentioned he had “another side, a hidden side, a dark side, a side that he, McDavid and Brown did not allow the world to see.”
Prosecutors mentioned Kelly had intercourse with a number of women between the ages of 13 and 16 from 1996 via 2001, typically recording himself having intercourse with them.
Julien detailed some of these relationships, together with one with a girl formally recognized as “Minor 1,” now being referred to as “Jane.”
Back in 2008, when Kelly was acquitted of youngster pornography costs, the woman in that tape didn’t testify.
That sufferer, 13 on the time, is now in her 30s, and federal prosecutors mentioned each she and her mother and father will testify, and jurors will see excerpts of the tapes she’s in.
Prosecutors mentioned jurors will see components of three complete tapes, however will not see a fourth, as a result of Kelly and his associates efficiently lined it up.
Kelly saved these tapes shut, as a result of he knew he’d get in hassle in the event that they got here to gentle, and when one of the tapes went lacking, Kelly, Brown, and McDavid went to extraordinary lengths to get it again, in accordance to Julien.
The defense spoke instantly to these tapes, saying there’s an obligation to resolve if these tapes are genuine, even questioning the existence of the fourth tape.
Kelly’s lead defense legal professional, Jennifer Bonjean, instructed the jury they are going to want to “brave” on this “challenging” case, since most have some data of Kelly, and are “not blank slates,” a spotlight in jury choice the previous two days.
Speaking instantly to Jane, the defense workforce questioned her resolution to converse up now, mentioning she has immunity on this case.
She additionally says Kelly deserves a non-biased jury and to think about each one of the 13 counts individually and decide if the federal government has met its burden for every one.Â
Kelly was reintroduced to the jury as a Grammy award-winning singer who went from being a highschool dropout to singing within the subways to turning into a star.Â
Bonjean mentioned whereas Kelly could have “stumbled along the way” on his journey from poverty to music stardom, she requested the jury to reject the prosecution’s makes an attempt to painting him as a “serial child abuser” and a “monster,” and bear in mind he is a human being.
“You’re not going to be asked if he’s a good or bad person…that’s for social media,” Bonjean mentioned.
After each side accomplished their opening statements, prosecutors known as their first witness, Dr. Darrel Turner, a licensed medical and forensic psychologist, and professional who’s testified a whole bunch of instances on “grooming,” phrase used to describe how intercourse offenders regularly begin and preserve sexual relationships with younger victims in secret.
Turner conceded he by no means examined R. Kelly, and was testifying broadly about his analysis on grooming, and the way abusive adults use a “power differential” over youngsters to indoctrinate and management them.
Also known as as a witness was Dan Everett, a retired Chicago Police detective, who acquired the primary tip concerning the then-teenage “Jane” again in 2000.
Everett recalled his interview of “Jane” and her mother and father, when he mentioned the woman referred to Kelly as her godfather and mentioned no sexual abuse came about. At the time, CPD calling the investigation “unfounded,” since she and her mother and father denied sexual abuse.
But Everett later acquired a intercourse tape of Kelly and a woman from the Chicago Sun Times, and Everett mentioned he acknowledged the woman on the tape “Jane.”
Everett will proceed his testimony on Thursday, when defense attorneys will start their cross-examination.
Jury choice for the trial wrapped up Tuesday. In all, jury choice took two days with a decide swearing within the jury Tuesday night with 12 jurors and 6 alternates.
Kelly is dealing with a 13-count federal indictment together with youngster pornography and obstruction of justice costs.
Federal prosecutors say he and his associates rigged his 2008 youngster pornography trial in Cook County. Kelly, McDavid, and Brown are accused of bribing or in any other case intimidating witnesses together with a teenage woman whom Kelly allegedly sexually assaulted on videotape. Kelly was acquitted at that 2008 trial.
This time round, that teenage woman, who’s now in her 30s, is anticipated to be the star witness — testifying that these denials in 2008 had been a lie and that she did have intercourse with Kelly as a minor.
Kelly is already sentenced to 30 years in jail for a federal intercourse trafficking case in New York. He would face a minimal of ten extra years if convicted of the costs in his hometown of Chicago with the potential for many years extra.
