
R. Kelly lawyers: We’ll fight bid to add claims to trial | Crime-and-courts
NEW YORK — R. Kelly’s lawyers said Monday they would fight prosecutors’ bid to tell jurors about allegations beyond the actual charges at his upcoming federal sex trafficking trial.
“This is nothing more than a veiled effort to pile on to further shape the public’s perception in this case, ignoring that Mr. Kelly is presumed innocent until proven otherwise,” Kelly lawyer Nicole Blank Becker said by email, adding that his attorneys would “vigorously oppose” the government’s request.
“As the trial nears we are looking forward to the truth prevailing,” she wrote.
Jury selection is due to start Aug. 9 in a New York federal court for the Grammy Award-winning R&B star.
He’s charged with leading what prosecutors call a criminal enterprise of managers, bodyguards and other employees. Prosecutors say the staffers helped Kelly to recruit women and girls for sex and pornography and to exercise a lot of control over them.
The charges involve six different women and girls.
Prosecutors now also want jurors to hear about more than a dozen other people who allege Kelly sexually or physically abused, threatened or otherwise mistreated them. The claims include an allegation that he had sexual contact with an underage boy.
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Kelly denies ever abusing anyone.
The multiplatinum-selling singer, born Robert Sylvester Kelly, is known for work including the 1996 hit “I Believe I Can Fly” and the cult classic “Trapped in the Closet,” a multi-part tale of sexual betrayal and intrigue.
He also faces sex-related charges in Illinois and Minnesota and has pleaded not guilty.
PHOTOS: R. Kelly
In this June 13, 2008 file photo, R&B singer R. Kelly leaves the Cook County Criminal Court Building in Chicago after a jury found him not guilty on all counts in his child pornography trial.
This June 13, 2008, file photo shows R&B singer R. Kelly, arriving at the Cook County Criminal Court Building in Chicago.
Roger Miller
In this June 30, 2013, file photo, R. Kelly performs at the BET Awards in Los Angeles.
Roger Miller
City inspectors from the Department of Buildings and Chicago Fire Department enter the back door alley entrance to the studio space for musician R. Kelly, 219 N. Justine St. in Chicago, Ill., on Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2019.
This Feb. 12, 2011 photo shows R. Kelly performing at the pre-Grammy gala & salute to industry icons with Clive Davis honoring David Geffen in Beverly Hills, Calif.
R. Kelly appears during a hearing Sept. 17, 2019, at the Leighton Criminal Court Building in Chicago.
Singer R. Kelly pleads not guilty to 11 additional sex-related felonies during a court hearing before Judge Lawrence Flood at Leighton Criminal Court Building in Chicago on June 6, 2019.
In this March 22, 2019 file photo, R. Kelly walks with attorneys and supporters into the Leighton Criminal Courthouse in Chicago.
R. Kelly, front, leaves the Leighton Criminal Court after a hearing on March 22, 2019, in Chicago.
R. Kelly appears for a hearing at the Leighton Criminal Court Building in Chicago earlier this year.
In this Feb. 25, 2019, file photo, R. Kelly, right, leaves Cook County Jail with his defense attorney, Steve Greenberg, in Chicago.
Roger Miller