Everybody knew the allegations against R Kelly – so why has it taken 30 years to get justice?

Published

3 years ago

September 27, 2021

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R Kelly’s trial was the culmination of decades of accusations, pointing to a predator hiding in plain sight.

Rumours and allegations about the now disgraced R&B singer date back to almost the beginning of his career – and yet, he rose to become a chart-topper, a Grammy winner, an artist who filled arenas and collaborated with huge stars; at his height, one of the biggest recording acts in the world.

The criminal details of his marriage to Aaliyah in 1994, when she was 15 and he was 27 – now detailed in open court, a former tour manager admitting he bribed an official to get a fake ID in order for the ceremony to go ahead – had always been a well-known secret. And in 2002, Kelly was charged with 21 counts of making indecent images of children. After years of delays to his trial, the singer was acquitted, but the allegations never went away.

Claims made over the years were silenced and brushed over, by an industry that wanted to keep the money rolling in, and fans who did not want to believe Kelly could have committed the crimes he was accused of. The world wanted to hear his music, so his unknown accusers were easy to ignore.

In the end, it was a documentary series, Surviving R Kelly, released in 2019, that became the catalyst for the singer’s trial in New York, and ultimately led to him being found guilty of all nine charges brought against him – one charge of racketeering and eight counts of violating a law which prohibits transporting people across state lines for prostitution.

For Jim DeRogatis, a journalist and music critic who wrote his first investigative report on Kelly for the Chicago Sun-Times in December 2000, with details of an allegation made against the singer dating back to 1991, it has been a long time coming.

“I always felt like I was late to the story when my partner at the Sun-Times, Abdon Pallasch, and I did the first investigative report,” he tells Sky News. “It had been going on already for nine years. We never thought when that paper came out… that this would still be ongoing in 2021.”

Just over a year later, DeRogatis was anonymously sent a videotape. “There was a manila envelope with a VHS cassette,” he says. “No markings on either.” The contents of the tape, he says, were horrifying. “Twenty-six minutes and 39 seconds showed Kelly very clearly having sexual contact with a 14-year-old girl, urinating in her mouth at one point.”

The tape led to the 2002 charges and the delayed trial in 2008. But Kelly was acquitted and continued to prey on young girls.

“He thought he was untouchable,” says DeRogatis. “There was a hubris, an ego there… He was silencing victims with money.” The most shocking thing about the case, he says, is the timeframe, and how Kelly was allowed to get away with what he was doing because of his fame.

“During that time, he’s selling 100 million albums – of his own, and [records and songs] he produced for everyone from Whitney Houston and Celine Dion to Lady Gaga and Justin Bieber. This was a cash machine for the music industry that was well aware of his behaviour and never actually acted to stop it.”

DeRogatis never stopped his reporting, helping to tell the stories of 48 different accusers over the past 21 years. But it was Surviving R Kelly that finally got people listening, he says.

“There were police officers who valiantly tried to stop his predatory behaviour. But, you know, until Surviving R Kelly brought these women into people’s living rooms in America, and they saw woman after woman after woman; 12 different women appeared on camera, telling their stories. They cannot all be liars.”

So why did justice take so long?

Kenyette Tisha Barnes, the co-founder of the #MuteRKelly movement – launched in 2017 to make calls to boycott the singer’s music and shows, and “hold accountable those who allowed this behaviour to go on for so long” – says the answer is simple: “Because these were young black girls from inner-city Chicago.”

It has taken movements such as #MeToo and Time’s Up, as well as #MuteRKelly, to get to this point, she says.

“I was a big R Kelly fan many years ago, in the ’90s. And I remember the stories. I started to hear about Aaliyah and the other young ladies, and they were always young black girls.

“I was a black girl, I’m a black woman in this country. And I’ve watched the way the entertainment industry, our whole community, maligned these young women for years. And enough was just enough.”

DeRogatis agrees it was a “problem of race”, saying: “What the 48 women whose stories I’ve told in the last 21 years have all said to me is that nobody matters less in America than young black girls. They are simply not believed, and women in general are not believed about a sexual abuse story. But black girls in particular.”

For Kelly, who last released a studio album in 2016, the guilty verdict in New York is not the end of his legal troubles; he is facing further sex abuse charges brought in Illinois and Minnesota – to which he has also pleaded not guilty.

So if the trials go ahead, there could be more allegations against the singer to come. And thanks to this first trial in New York, the spotlight is now also firmly on those who at best turned a blind eye; at worst, enabled him.

Charging the singer with racketeering meant prosecutors set out to show him as the leader of “an enterprise” where “managers, bodyguards, drivers, personal assistants and runners” were all complicit in recruiting women and girls for sex with him.

DeRogatis says there are others who should be facing charges and Barnes agrees that while Kelly was “at the top of the pyramid”, there is still “a lot of blame to go around”.

“Number one, it’s R Kelly,” she says. “Number two, it’s the people who enabled it. It’s the producers, the promoters, the runners, the people in his camp who were more interested in being aligned with a superstar than actually protecting black girls.

“And then we go further: it’s the black community. We’re all complicit. If you’ve ever played an R Kelly song, you’re complicit. If you’ve ever watched that videotape, you’re complicit. I think we have to unpack that reality that we all allowed this man to just move in the most predatory ways.”

“The racketeering statute is generally used against mob bosses and drug kingpins,” says DeRogatis. “We only have one person indicted. How are you a criminal enterprise if no one else in your alleged enterprise is being held to account?”

US

Biden delivers election-year roasting for Trump but ignores anti-war protesters outside

Published

12 hours ago

April 28, 2024

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Biden delivers election-year roasting for Trump but ignores anti-war protesters outside

US President Joe Biden has delivered an election-year roasting of his rival Donald Trump, criticising his immaturity.

Speaking at the annual White House Correspondents’ Association dinner on Saturday night, the 81-year-old responded to concerns that he is too old for a second presidential term.

“Yes, age is an issue – I’m a grown man running against a six-year-old,” he said, referring to his 77-year-old Republican opponent.

But in a more serious moment, the president told the gathered reporters: “I’m sincerely not asking you to take sides.

“I’m asking you to rise up to the seriousness of the moment.

“Move past the horse race numbers and the gotcha moments and the distractions, the sideshows that have come to dominate and sensationalise our politics, and focus on what’s actually at stake.”

Mr Biden did not acknowledge the hundreds of demonstrators standing outside the event calling for an end to US support of Israel.

Earlier, he had arrived at the venue through a back entrance, avoiding most of the protesters.

Outside the main entrance, some shouted “Shame on you!”, running after well-dressed attendees as they hurried inside for the dinner.

Some chanted accusations that US journalists are not paying enough attention to the war and are misrepresenting it, shouting: “Western media, we see you and all the horrors that you hide”.

They were not alone – more than two dozen journalists in Gaza wrote a letter last week calling on their US-based colleagues to boycott the dinner.

The letter said: “The toll exacted on us for merely fulfilling our journalistic duties is staggering.

“We are subjected to detentions, interrogations and torture by the Israeli military – all for the ‘crime’ of journalistic integrity.”

Israel declared war on Hamas and launched an air and ground offensive in Gaza in response to the attack on southern Israel on 7 October, when Hamas killed about 1,200 people in Israel and took another 250 hostages.

More than half of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have sought refuge in Rafah, where Israel has conducted near-daily raids as it prepares for a possible offensive in the city.

More than 34,000 Palestinians have been killed during the Israel-Hamas war, according to the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry.

At the beginning of April, Reporters Without Borders said more than 105 journalists had been killed in the area since 7 October, with at least 22 of them killed in the course of their work.

The protests outside the correspondents’ dinner come as a protest movement sweeps across US universities – a growing revolt within a demographic Mr Biden will need to beat Mr Trump.

US

Harvey Weinstein taken to hospital after being moved to a New York jail

Published

24 hours ago

April 27, 2024

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Harvey Weinstein taken to hospital after being moved to a New York jail

The lawyer for Harvey Weinstein says the former film producer has been taken to hospital after being moved to a New York jail.

It comes days after the movie mogul’s 2020 conviction for rape was overturned, with a New York court ordering a new trial in the landmark “MeToo” case.

Arthur Aidala, Weinstein’s lawyer, said his client was moved to Bellevue Hospital in Manhattan for tests after his arrival on Friday at a New York City prison.

“They examined him and sent him to Bellevue. It seems like he needs a lot of help, physically. He’s got a lot of problems. He’s getting all kinds of tests. He’s somewhat of a train wreck health-wise,” Mr Aidala said.

The hospital did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

Mr Aidala said he is still “sharp as a tack” mentally, and his health problems are physical.

Weinstein has had cardiac issues, diabetes, sleep apnea and eye problems for some time.

He was moved on Friday to the Rikers Island jail complex, in The Bronx’s East River, from the Mohawk Correctional Facility, in Oneida County, upstate New York, where he had been since 2023.

“He was not treated well. They refused to give him even a sip of water, no food, no bathroom break,” said Mr Aidala.

“He’s a 72-year-old sickly man.”

Frank Dwyer, a spokesperson with the New York City Department of Correction, said Weinstein remains in custody at Bellevue Hospital.

The disgraced producer has been in prison since 2020 and on Thursday, the New York Court of Appeals overturned his first rape conviction.

He has been serving a 23-year sentence after being accused of sexually assaulting ex-production assistant Mimi Haley in 2006 and raping former aspiring actress Jessica Mann in 2013 following the landmark 2020 trial in New York.

The state’s highest court found the judge at the trial prejudiced Weinstein with “egregious” improper rulings, including a decision to let women testify about allegations that were not part of the case.

In a 4-3 decision, the court’s majority said it was “an abuse of judicial discretion to permit untested allegations of nothing more than bad behaviour”.

Mr Aidala said the decision was a victory for the defendant and any American charged with a crime, “no matter how popular or unpopular they are”.

“You can’t convict someone based on their entire life,” he said.

“You can’t allow more witnesses to testify against the defendant than the defendant is actually charged with.”

“You can’t throw out a hundred years of legal precedent because someone is unpopular.”

Weinstein remains in jail despite the recent ruling because he was convicted in Los Angeles in 2022 of another rape, against which he is also appealing. He was sentenced to 16 years in prison for that crime.

Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg – who is already involved in a hush money trial against former president Donald Trump – will now decide whether Weinstein will face a retrial for his 2020 conviction.

A spokesperson for Mr Bragg said in an email: “We will do everything in our power to retry this case, and remain steadfast in our commitment to survivors of sexual assault.”

Weinstein is scheduled to appear in Manhattan Criminal Court at 2.15pm (local time) on Wednesday in a hearing that will set a timetable for future appearances, assuming the retrial goes ahead.

Deborah Tuerkheimer, a professor at Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law and former assistant district attorney in Manhattan, said whether there is a second trial will “hinge on the preferences of the women who would have to testify again and endure the ordeal of a retrial.”

“I think ultimately this will come down to whether they feel it’s something they want to do, are able to do,” she said.

Once considered the most powerful man in Hollywood, Weinstein was accused by dozens of women who claimed he bullied, pressured, coerced, or overpowered them while demanding sexual favours.

Gwyneth Paltrow, Salma Hayek, and Lupita Nyong’o all accused Weinstein of sexual harassment, while actresses Asia Argento and Rose McGowan were among others who accused him of raping them.

He was also accused of reaching settlements to keep the stories quiet.

Weinstein had admitted his behaviour had “caused a lot of pain”, but has maintained his innocence throughout, saying any sexual activity was consensual.

US

Hundreds of homes damaged after tornado smashes through Nebraska

Published

2 days ago

April 27, 2024

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Hundreds of homes damaged after tornado smashes through Nebraska

Hundreds of homes have been damaged and nearly 10,000 are without power after a tornado smashed through parts of Omaha, in the US state of Nebraska.

A number of tornadoes were reported in the state but the worst hit the suburbs to the northwest of the city, which has a population of 485,000.

The homes damaged were mostly in the Elkhorn area, police said, and emergency workers were going door-to-door to help people trapped in the debris.

Elkhorn residents Pat and Kim Woods said they took shelter when the tornado was about 200 yards away.

“We could hear it coming through,” Mr Woods said.

“When we came up, our fence was gone and we looked to the northwest and the whole neighbourhood’s gone.”

Mrs Woods added: “The whole neighbourhood just to the north of us is pretty flattened.”

But while some homes in the area were destroyed, others appeared untouched.

There were no reports of deaths but a number of people suffered minor injuries, according to Omaha Police Chief Todd Schmaderer, who added: “People had warnings of this and that saved lives.”

One of the other tornados passed through parts of Eppley Airfield, the city’s airport, which was closed for almost an hour.

Passengers were sent to storm shelters, according to Omaha Airport Authority Chief Strategy Officer Steve McCoy.

The terminal was not affected but other airport buildings “sustained damage”.

The airport has now reopened, although flight delays are expected late into Friday.

The tornado then crossed the Missouri River into Iowa, where damage reports are still coming through.

Daniel Fienhold, who owns a steakhouse in Crescent, Iowa, said he watched the weather from outside with his daughter and employees.

“It started raining, and then it started hailing, and then all the clouds started to kind of swirl and come together, and as soon as the wind started to pick up, that’s when I headed for the basement, but we never saw it,” he said.

Three workers at an industrial plant were injured when another tornado struck near the Nebraska city of Lincoln on Friday afternoon.

The building collapsed with around 70 people inside and several had to be rescued from the debris.

The weekend is not likely to bring any relief – The Weather Service has issued tornado watches across parts of Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma and Texas.