Woman in R. Kelly trial says R&B singer had sex with her ‘hundreds of times’ before turning 18

A woman who has been at the center of Kelly’s legal troubles testified on Thursday that the R&B singer had “hundreds” of sexual acts with her before she turned 18, starting when she was 15.

Jane, now the alias of a 37-year-old woman in Kelly’s trial on child pornography and obstruction of justice charges, told the jury that in the late 1990s, when she was 13, she asked the Grammy-winning singer to be her godfather because she found him an inspiration and saw him as a mentor.

He said that in a few weeks, Kelly would call him and say sexual things to him. She said he first touched her breasts and other body parts when she was about 14 years old at a Chicago recording studio, when he “started breaking into” her home on Chicago’s north side. He told the jury that he was 15 years old when they first had sex. Kelly, 55, would have been around 30 at the time.
Asked by the prosecutor how she knew what to do sexually, Jane replied, “He was telling me what to do.” When asked how many times they had sex before turning 18, she calmly replied, “Countless times. … hundreds.”

Kelly, who is serving a 30-year sentence in New York for a conviction earlier this year on federal charges that he used his name to sexually assault fans, is on trial in his hometown of Chicago on several other federal charges. The most serious of these is the conspiracy to obstruct justice by allegedly rigging a 2008 trial on child pornography charges stemming from an alleged video of him and Jane having sex when he was a minor. Among other things, prosecutors say Kelly paid and threatened Jane not to testify at the trial. He didn’t and was eventually acquitted.

Kelly also faces accusations of producing child pornography and luring minors into sex.
Unlike the 2008 trial, Jane cooperated with prosecutors prior to the current trial and is a key witness.

Speaking at the booth for the first time on Thursday, Jane described her upbringing in a musical family in suburban Chicago, including homeschooling while participating in a touring band she joined at age 12.

Jane first met Kelly in the late 1990s when she was in high school. She was booked into Kelly’s Chicago recording studio with her aunt, a professional singer who worked with Kelly. Shortly after that meeting, Jane told her parents that Kelly would become her godmother.

Prosecutors said Kelly filmed Jane between 1998 and 2000 in the log cabin of her Chicago home. Federal prosecutors say she and Kelly have had sex hundreds of times over the years in their homes, recording studios and on tour buses.

Kelly, who rose from poverty on Chicago’s South Side to become a singer, songwriter and record producer, knew the 2008 conviction would effectively end his life as he knew it, which is why prosecutors say he conspired to rig the judgment.

According to prosecutors, Kelly told her parents and Jane to leave Chicago and paid them to travel to Mexico, the Bahamas and Cancun. When they returned, prosecutors said Kelly had tried to isolate Jane and transfer her to different hotels. When a state grand jury was subpoenaed to search for the video, Jane, her father and mother denied that she was in it.

On June 13, 2008, when he was acquitted of all child pornography charges, tears were streaming down his face. Some jurors told reporters after the trial that they were not convinced the woman in the video was who state prosecutors said she was.

Before the 2008 trial, Kelly carried a bag full of sex tapes everywhere for years, but some of the tapes were lost afterwards, according to court documents. In the 2000s, copies of several videos appeared on street corners across the United States.

In the early 2000s, an aunt showed her parents a copy of a video showing their daughter having sex with Kelly. When they confronted Kelly, he told them: “Are you with me or against me?” the government said in a statement.

The parents took this as a threat.

Kelly, who denies any wrongdoing, has been dogged by complaints and accusations about his sexual behavior for decades. Scrutiny has intensified since the #MeToo era and the 2019 six-part documentary “Surviving R. Kelly”.

Kelly also faces four counts of sex with a minor, one for each of the other four defendants. They are also expected to testify.

Prosecutors told the jury that the evidence includes at least three videos showing Kelly having sex with underage girls.

Two of Kelly’s associates, Darrell McDavid and Milton Brown, are co-defendants. McDavid is accused of helping Kelly settle a 2008 lawsuit, while Brown is accused of receiving child pornography. Like Kelly, they denied any wrongdoing.