©Reuters. FILE PHOTO: Grammy-winning R&B singer R. Kelly arrives for a child support hearing at a Cook County court in Chicago, Illinois, U.S., March 6, 2019. REUTERS/Kamil Krzaczynski/File Photo
(Requests to correct the typographical error in the third paragraph to Kelly’s attorney were directed to “the” court of appeals instead of “he” court of appeals)
By Jonathan Stempel
NEW YORK (Reuters) – R. Kelly’s lawyer on Monday succeeded in convincing a U.S. appeals court to overturn the former R&B superstar’s sex trafficking conviction and 30-year prison sentence.
Kelly, 57, is appealing his September 2021 conviction by a jury in Brooklyn, New York, on all nine charges he faced, including racketeering and eight counts of violating the Mann Act, which prohibits the transportation of persons across state lines for prostitution.
His lawyer Jennifer Bonjean told the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that federal prosecutors failed to prove that the singer ran a racketeering scheme in which he recruited underage girls for sexual purposes and then raped several victims.
Questions from the three-judge panel in Manhattan suggested the argument might be a tough sell.
“Hasn’t the government proven that one of the purposes of this enterprise was to recruit girls so Kelly could engage in illegal sexual activity?” Circuit Judge Denny Chin asked.
Bonjean said he didn’t do so based on evidence such as Kelly’s employees passing the backstage phone number to the singer, perhaps best known for the 1996 Grammy-winning hit “I Believe I Can Fly.”
“There was no evidence that anyone went out there saying, ‘I can find out what your age is, if you’re underage, come back, we want to serve you to Mr. Kelly.’”
Circuit Judge Richard Sullivan suggested that the ages of some accusers might have been obvious.
“The appearance of these girls would be proof enough, wouldn’t it?” she asked Bonjean.
“You look young doesn’t mean you know someone is underage,” Bonjean responded.
‘NO WAY OUT’
Federal prosecutor Kayla Bensing’s questioning was less focused, as she spent three uninterrupted minutes recounting testimony from some accusers.
Some of the government’s 45 witnesses also testified that Kelly and his associates imposed repressive conditions, such as requiring that victims call him “Dad” and be allowed to eat or use the bathroom.
“The jury was entitled to infer that Kelly and his inner circle knew what was going on,” Bensing said. “He used the feat to make them feel like they were confined and that they had no way out.”
Kelly, whose full name is Robert Sylvester Kelly, is among the most prominent people convicted of sexual misconduct during the #MeToo movement.
His conviction and sentence follow two decades of allegations of misconduct, which he has repeatedly denied.
Other arguments in Kelly’s appeal included that jurors prejudged his guilt, his attorney was ineffective, and the jury was improperly “flooded” with evidence of other alleged bad acts.
Kelly was also convicted in September 2022 by a Chicago jury of child sex crimes and sentenced to 20 years in prison.
But the judge added only one year to Kelly’s prison term, with the other 19 years overlapping the original 30-year sentence.
Kelly was behind bars in July 2019, now in Butner Prison, North Carolina, which housed the late Ponzi schemer Bernard Madoff. He will be 78 years old when he can be released in 2045.