![]() While prosecutors plan on presenting evidence that Kelly allegedly abused 22 victims, the charges laid out in the indictment center around six victims, most of whom will be referred to solely by their first names.Īmong the singer’s alleged victims are Aaliyah, the late singer Kelly married when she was 15 and he was 27 (Kelly has denied he knew her age at the time), as well as Jerhonda Pace, who publicly spoke out in the docuseries Surviving R. “Don’t assume that everyone’s telling the truth,” she said. She encouraged the jury to be suspicious of the alleged victims, saying they “have an agenda” and claiming many “became angry, resentful, and even spiteful” when their “relationships” ended, and “that’s when they took advantage of their situation.” ![]() ![]() But one of the attorneys representing him, Nicole Blank Becker, offered an opening statement on Wednesday in which she sought to cast doubt on Kelly’s accusers, saying their allegations are a “mess of lies” that “will crumble” under cross-examination. Kelly’s defense team has been in chaos over the past few months, with two of his lawyers withdrawing from the case just weeks prior. “The defendant quickly learned he could take advantage of this access - and he did,” she said. Kelly “used his fame, power, and a network of people” as well as “lies, manipulation, threats, and physical abuse” to control his victims, a number of whom were aspiring singers or fans who met him at his own concerts, Melendez told the jury. In a Brooklyn courtroom over the next several weeks, the government will present their case arguing that Kelly was the ringleader behind an “enterprise” that exploited his fame to sexually abuse numerous victims, many of them underage. “This case is about a predator,” Assistant US Attorney Maria Cruz Melendez said in her opening statement for the racketeering and sex trafficking case. Kelly kicked off Wednesday morning, with federal prosecutors beginning to lay out the decades of allegations they say illustrate that the singer is a “predator” who abused and controlled his victims for years. BROOKLYN, New York - The federal trial against R.
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