NEW YORK (AP) — A prosecutor described sex abuse claims against R&B star R. Kelly for a Brooklyn jury Wednesday, saying the case was “about a predator,” as she summarized in an opening statement what will be revealed at his long-anticipated federal trial arising from years of allegations that he sexually abused women and girls while pursuing fame and fortune.
“This case is about a predator,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Maria Cruz Melendez told the jury as she explained charges Kelly faces more than a decade after he was acquitted in a 2008 child pornography case in Chicago. It was a reprieve that allowed his music career to continue until the #MeToo era caught up with him, emboldening alleged victims to come forward.
The women’s stories got wide exposure with the Lifetime documentary “Surviving R. Kelly.” The series explored how an entourage of supporters protected Kelly and silenced his victims for decades, foreshadowing a federal racketeering conspiracy case that landed in Kelly in jail in 2019.
