R Kelly’s trial on allegations of making child pornography and luring underage girls for sex is about his “dark” and “hidden” side, prosecutors said.
R&B singer he is also accused of rigging his 2008 child pornography trial at federal court in his hometown of ChicagoIllinois.
US legal assistant Jason Julien tried to give the jury an idea of Kelly’s alleged exploitation on Wednesday, saying he “repeatedly” had sex with girls aged 14, 15 and 16.
He told the court that the “I Believe I Can Fly” singer had sex with “multiple girls, hundreds of times”.
R Kelly was sentenced to 30 years in prison in June for using his fame to sexually abuse young fans.
The 55-year-old is now on trial accused of soliciting minors for sex, producing child pornography, and fixing his 2008 state child pornography trial in which he was acquitted.
A focus of the trial will be whether Kelly threatened and paid a girl with whom he would film himself having sex when he was in his 30s, and she was no older than 14.
The charge underlies another of the charges against Kelly: conspiracy to obstruct justice.
Jurors in the 2008 child pornography trial acquitted Kelly, with some later explaining that they felt they had no choice because the girl did not testify.
The woman, now in her thirties and listed in court as Minor 1 only, will be the government’s main witness.
When she gives evidence, prosecutors explained, they will not use her real name, nor will they refer to her as Minor 1. Instead, they will call her by a single alias: Jane.
He is expected to prove that he was having video sex with Kelly. The recording was the focus of the month-long trial in 2008 and was played for jurors almost every day.
Analysis: Everyone knew about the allegations, so why did it take 30 years to get justice?
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R Kelly did “atrocious things with the children”
Kelly – who was recently removed from suicide surveillance in a Brooklyn prison – also faces four counts of soliciting minors by sex, one each for four other accusers. They too are required to provide evidence.
Mr. Julien said during the opening remarks that Kelly’s musical career was his “public side”, before continuing to say that the singer had “another side: a hidden side, a dark side”.
He added: “This process is about Kelly’s hidden side.”
Jennifer Bonjean, Kelly’s principal attorney, told the jury to reject her client’s portrait from the prosecution.
“When the government wants to paint him as a monster,” he said, “remember we’re talking about a human being.”
Ms. Bonjean also warned jurors about what she described as a “climate of crowd justice” surrounding Kelly, referring to the six-part documentary “Surviving R Kelly” and years of social media posts about her behavior.
Two of Kelly’s associates, Derrel McDavid and Milton Brown, are co-defendants in the Chicago trial.
McDavid is accused of helping Kelly fix the 2008 trial, while Brown is accused of receiving child pornography material.
Like Kelly, they denied the irregularities.
Read more:
Key allegations made against R Kelly in his first trial
Derrel McDavid, center, arrives in court for opening statements
Milton Brown is one of Kelly’s co-defendants. Image: AP
When both sides began exercising peremptory challenges – in which they can remove a fixed number of potential jurors from the pool – one of Kelly’s attorneys accused prosecutors of trying to hit blacks from the jury to “deny Mr. Kelly a jury of his peers “.
Prosecutors noted that many African American people had already made it to the jury before the defense objected and argued that their reasons for wanting to hit some had nothing to do with race.
In one case, they said an older man seemed to have difficulty staying awake.
Judge Harry Leinenweber was partly in agreement with the defense, preventing prosecutors from hitting three black jury members and restoring them.
About half of the 12 jurors enlisted were identified as black by the judge, the prosecutor and the defense attorneys. Six alternates were also selected.
Kelly will be around 80 years old before qualifying for early release on the basis of her 30-year sentence in New York, which she is appealing against.
