R. Kelly's goddaughter testified that they had sex "innumerable times" while she was underage
Follow up to this post.
Using the pseudonym Jane, R. Kelly's goddaughter, now 37, testified in federal court that she began visiting his studio regularly beginning when she was 12 or 13 when she accompanied her aunt Stephanie “Sparkle” Edwards. Sparkle said that Jane should ask Kelly to be her godfather. “(She said) I should sit on his lap and rub his head and ask him to play that role in my life,” Jane testified. She did, and Kelly “chuckled a bit, and said yes.”
[Trigger warning]
After that, their relationship took a sexual turn. She said when she was 13, they would have long phone conversations with him that eventually turned explicit. The first time he gave her alcohol, she was 14. This was also when he initiated sexual contact with her. She lost her virginity to him when she was 15.
After that, they had sex “innumerable times,” sometimes along with other teenage girls whom Jane recruited at Kelly’s request, she said. The encounters took place in Kelly’s home on West George Street, at his Near West Side recording studio, on tour buses, and in hotels in Chicago and elsewhere, she said.
Retired Chicago police detective Daniel Everett investigated the initial allegations that Kelly was sexually abusing his teenage goddaughter. He testified that during his 2000 investigation, Jane and her parents in 2000 they denied that the girl had any kind of inappropriate relationship with Kelly.
A little more than a year later, he received a video tape from Chicago Sun-Times journalist Jim DeRogatis and recognized Jane on the footage. That video became the center of Kelly’s Cook County court case 20 years ago. Jane is expected to testify later that she was in fact the girl depicted on infamous video footage being sexually abused by Kelly. Federal prosecutors allege Kelly and his associates paid off Jane and her family and covered up other videotapes in order to rig his Cook County trial. He was acquitted on those charges in 2008.
Matthew Hulsizer testified that in 2001 purchased a big house in Lakeview: a converted church with a swimming pool and basketball court and a barbershop. He later learned that R. Kelly was the previous owner of the house. After moving in, he found out that a smoke detector in at least one of the bedrooms was not in fact a smoke detector at all - it concealed a small hidden video camera. And in order to leave the bedroom, you had to press a button, he said, a feature he removed since he thought it was a safety hazard.
Kelly allegedly filmed at least one of the videos at the Lakewood house. In 2002, police evidence technicians came through to take photos, including pictures of the wood-paneled room depicted on the tape.
During opening statements, Kelly's attorney said that the prosecution's case “really does hinge on the testimony of liars, extortionists, (and) people who engaged in the business of trafficking pornography.”
source
UPDATE: Today Jane testified that she is the girl in the videotape that surfaced in 2002 and was the focus of the 2008 trial. She was 14 at the time that it was filmed. She said that he filmed her accepting money from him a precaution against anyone accusing him of abusing a child if the video ever fell into the hands of authorities. “If anyone saw the tape ... he wanted it to appear as if I was a prostitute," Jane said. She said when her parents confronted him about having sex with her, he dropped to his knees and begged them to forgive him.
Using the pseudonym Jane, R. Kelly's goddaughter, now 37, testified in federal court that she began visiting his studio regularly beginning when she was 12 or 13 when she accompanied her aunt Stephanie “Sparkle” Edwards. Sparkle said that Jane should ask Kelly to be her godfather. “(She said) I should sit on his lap and rub his head and ask him to play that role in my life,” Jane testified. She did, and Kelly “chuckled a bit, and said yes.”
[Trigger warning]
After that, their relationship took a sexual turn. She said when she was 13, they would have long phone conversations with him that eventually turned explicit. The first time he gave her alcohol, she was 14. This was also when he initiated sexual contact with her. She lost her virginity to him when she was 15.
After that, they had sex “innumerable times,” sometimes along with other teenage girls whom Jane recruited at Kelly’s request, she said. The encounters took place in Kelly’s home on West George Street, at his Near West Side recording studio, on tour buses, and in hotels in Chicago and elsewhere, she said.
Retired Chicago police detective Daniel Everett investigated the initial allegations that Kelly was sexually abusing his teenage goddaughter. He testified that during his 2000 investigation, Jane and her parents in 2000 they denied that the girl had any kind of inappropriate relationship with Kelly.
A little more than a year later, he received a video tape from Chicago Sun-Times journalist Jim DeRogatis and recognized Jane on the footage. That video became the center of Kelly’s Cook County court case 20 years ago. Jane is expected to testify later that she was in fact the girl depicted on infamous video footage being sexually abused by Kelly. Federal prosecutors allege Kelly and his associates paid off Jane and her family and covered up other videotapes in order to rig his Cook County trial. He was acquitted on those charges in 2008.
Matthew Hulsizer testified that in 2001 purchased a big house in Lakeview: a converted church with a swimming pool and basketball court and a barbershop. He later learned that R. Kelly was the previous owner of the house. After moving in, he found out that a smoke detector in at least one of the bedrooms was not in fact a smoke detector at all - it concealed a small hidden video camera. And in order to leave the bedroom, you had to press a button, he said, a feature he removed since he thought it was a safety hazard.
Kelly allegedly filmed at least one of the videos at the Lakewood house. In 2002, police evidence technicians came through to take photos, including pictures of the wood-paneled room depicted on the tape.
During opening statements, Kelly's attorney said that the prosecution's case “really does hinge on the testimony of liars, extortionists, (and) people who engaged in the business of trafficking pornography.”
source
UPDATE: Today Jane testified that she is the girl in the videotape that surfaced in 2002 and was the focus of the 2008 trial. She was 14 at the time that it was filmed. She said that he filmed her accepting money from him a precaution against anyone accusing him of abusing a child if the video ever fell into the hands of authorities. “If anyone saw the tape ... he wanted it to appear as if I was a prostitute," Jane said. She said when her parents confronted him about having sex with her, he dropped to his knees and begged them to forgive him.