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Lizzette
Martinez,
author
of "Jane
Doe #9
how I
survived
R.Kelly,
left,
and
Jovante
Cunningham,
center,
stand
behind
attorney
Gloria
Allred
as she
addresses
the
media
outside
federal
court,
Wednesday,
June 29,
2022, in
the
Brooklyn
borough
of New
York.
R&B star
R. Kelly
was
sentenced
to 30
years in
prison
Wednesday
in a
federal
sex
trafficking
case in
New
York.
(AP
Photo/John
Minchillo) |
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R. Kelly
sentenced
to 30
years in
sex
trafficking
case
By TOM
HAYS,
BOBBY
CAINA
CALVAN
and
JENNIFER
PELTZ
apnews.com
NEW YORK
-
Disgraced
R&B
superstar
R. Kelly
was
sentenced
Wednesday
to 30
years in
prison
for
using
his fame
to
sexually
abuse
young
fans,
including
some who
were
just
children,
in a
systematic
scheme
that
went on
for
decades.
Through
tears
and
anger,
several
of
Kelly’s
accusers
told a
court in
New York
City,
and the
singer
himself,
that he
had
misled
and
preyed
upon
them.
“You
made me
do
things
that
broke my
spirit.
I
literally
wished I
would
die
because
of how
low you
made me
feel,”
said one
unnamed
survivor,
directly
addressing
Kelly,
who kept
his
hands
folded
and his
eyes
downcast.
“Do you
remember
that?”
she
asked.
Kelly,
55,
didn’t
give a
statement
and
showed
no
reaction
on
hearing
his
penalty,
which
also
included
a
$100,000
fine. He
has
denied
wrongdoing,
and he
plans to
appeal
his
conviction.
The
Grammy-winning,
multiplatinum-selling
songwriter
was
found
guilty
last
year of
racketeering
and sex
trafficking
at a
trial
that
gave
voice to
accusers
who had
previously
wondered
if their
stories
were
being
ignored
because
they
were
Black
women.
Victims
“are no
longer
the
preyed-on
individuals
we once
were,”
another
one of
his
accusers
said at
the
sentencing.
“There
wasn’t a
day in
my life,
up until
this
moment,
that I
actually
believed
that the
judicial
system
would
come
through
for
Black
and
brown
girls,”
she
added
outside
court.
A third
woman,
sobbing
and
sniffling
as she
addressed
the
court,
also
said
Kelly’s
conviction
renewed
her
faith in
the
legal
system.
The
woman
said
Kelly
victimized
her
after
she went
to a
concert
when she
was 17.
“I was
afraid,
naive
and
didn’t
know how
to
handle
the
situation,”
she
said, so
she
didn’t
speak up
at the
time.
“Silence,”
she
said,
“is a
very
lonely
place.”
Kelly’s
lawyer,
Jennifer
Bonjean,
said he
was
“devastated”
by the
sentence
and
saddened
by what
he had
heard.
“He’s a
human
being.
He feels
what
other
people
are
feeling.
But that
doesn’t
mean
that he
can
accept
responsibility
in the
way that
the
government
would
like him
to and
other
people
would
like him
to.
Because
he
disagrees
with the
characterizations
that
have
been
made
about
him,”
she
said.
The
sentence
caps a
slow-motion
fall for
Kelly,
who is
known
for work
including
the 1996
hit “I
Believe
I Can
Fly” and
the cult
classic
“Trapped
in the
Closet,”
a
multipart
tale of
sexual
betrayal
and
intrigue.
He was
adored
by
legions
of fans
and sold
millions
of
albums
even
after
allegations
about
his
abuse of
young
girls
began
circulating
publicly
in the
1990s.
He beat
child
pornography
charges
in
Chicago
in 2008,
when a
jury
acquitted
him.
Widespread
outrage
over
Kelly’s
sexual
misconduct
didn’t
emerge
until
the #MeToo
reckoning,
reaching
a
crescendo
after
the
release
of the
documentary
“Surviving
R.
Kelly.”
“I hope
this
sentencing
serves
as its
own
testimony
that it
doesn’t
matter
how
powerful,
rich or
famous
your
abuser
may be
or how
small
they
make you
feel —
justice
only
hears
the
truth,”
Brooklyn
U.S.
Attorney
Breon
Peace
said
Wednesday.
A
Brooklyn
federal
court
jury
convicted
the
singer,
born
Robert
Sylvester
Kelly,
after
hearing
that he
used his
entourage
of
managers
and
aides to
meet
girls
and keep
them
obedient,
an
operation
that
prosecutors
said
amounted
to a
criminal
enterprise.
Several
accusers
testified
that
Kelly
subjected
them to
perverse
and
sadistic
whims
when
they
were
underage.
The
accusers
alleged
they
were
ordered
to sign
nondisclosure
forms
and were
subjected
to
threats
and
punishments
such as
violent
spankings
if they
broke
what one
referred
to as
“Rob’s
rules.”
Some
said
they
believed
the
videotapes
he shot
of them
having
sex
would be
used
against
them if
they
exposed
what was
happening.
According
to
testimony,
Kelly
gave
several
accusers
herpes
without
disclosing
he had
an STD,
coerced
a
teenage
boy to
join him
for sex
with a
naked
girl who
emerged
from
underneath
a boxing
ring in
his
garage,
and shot
a
shaming
video
that
showed
one
victim
smearing
feces on
her face
as
punishment
for
breaking
his
rules.
“The
horrors
your
victims
endured,”
U.S.
District
Judge
Ann
Donnelly
said as
she
sentenced
him. “No
price
was too
high to
pay for
your
happiness.”
Lizzette
Martinez
was a
17-year-old
aspiring
singer
when she
met
Kelly at
a
Florida
mall.
She was
promised
mentorship
but
quickly
ended up
“a sex
slave,”
she said
Wednesday
outside
court.
Asked
whether
Kelly’s
30-year
sentence
was
sufficient
punishment,
she
paused
before
answering.
“I,
personally,
don’t
think
it’s
enough,”
she
said,
“but I’m
pleased
with
it.”
At the
trial,
evidence
also was
presented
about a
fraudulent
marriage
scheme
hatched
to
protect
Kelly
after he
feared
he had
impregnated
R&B
phenom
Aaliyah
in 1994
when she
was just
15.
Witnesses
said
they
were
married
in
matching
jogging
suits
using a
license
falsely
listing
her age
as 18;
he was
27 at
the
time.
Aaliyah
worked
with
Kelly,
who
wrote
and
produced
her 1994
debut
album,
“Age
Ain’t
Nothing
But A
Number.”
She died
in a
plane
crash in
2001 at
age 22.
Kelly
didn’t
testify
at his
trial,
but his
then-lawyers
portrayed
his
accusers
as
girlfriends
and
groupies
who
weren’t
forced
to do
anything
against
their
will and
stayed
with him
because
they
enjoyed
the
perks of
his
lifestyle.
His
current
lawyers
had
argued
he
should
get no
more
than 10
years in
prison
because
he had a
traumatic
childhood
“involving
severe,
prolonged
childhood
sexual
abuse,
poverty,
and
violence.”
As an
adult
with
“literacy
deficiencies,”
the star
was
“repeatedly
defrauded
and
financially
abused,
often by
the
people
he paid
to
protect
him,”
his
lawyers
said.
The
Associated
Press
does not
name
people
who say
they
have
been
sexually
assaulted
or
abused,
unless
they
come
forward
publicly,
as
Martinez
has.
Several
women
who
spoke at
Kelly’s
sentencing
were
identified
only by
first
names or
pseudonyms.
Kelly
has been
jailed
without
bail
since in
2019. He
still
faces
child
pornography
and
obstruction-of-justice
charges
in
Chicago,
where a
trial is
scheduled
to begin
Aug. 15.
___
Associated
Press
journalist
Ted
Shaffrey
contributed
to this
report.
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