Jury selection will begin on Monday in the federal child porn case against singer Robert Sylvester Kelly, who is better known by his stage name R. Kelly.
Kelly, 55, was convicted last month on charges of federal racketeering and sex- trafficking and sentenced to 30 years in prison.
In the second federal trial, he is facing charges of child porn and obstruction of justice based on complaints from several women who claim that he groomed them when they were minors.
According to court documents obtained by NBC News, at least two of the alleged victims are expected to testify during the trial.
Kelly also faced charges of child pornography in 2008, but was acquitted. The federal prosecutors allege that he committed obstruction of justice in that case, which included video footage of the singer sexually abusing a minor.
The singer’s former business manager Derrel McDavid and associate Milton “June” Brown are also facing charges and accused of conspiring to intimidate and bribe witnesses while covering up evidence in the previous trial.
Beau Brindley, an attorney for McDavid, said in a statement to NBC that he was just “doing his job.”
“It was his job to protect Robert Kelly’s image and his career. To do that, he hired some of the best lawyers in the United States,” Brindley said. “Those are the only people with whom Mr. McDavid entered into any agreements relevant to this case. Mr. McDavid and these lawyers did their job. They executed it with excellence. That was not a crime then. It is not a crime now. We look forward to Mr. McDavid’s exoneration.”
Kelly is facing additional federal and state charges in New York, Illinois and Minnesota.
In the case last month, Kelly was found guilty on nine counts relating to him setting up a criminal enterprise to recruit and traffick minors for sex.
“While the New York case, according to evidence and testimony presented in court, centered on racketeering charges and allegations that Kelly, his bodyguards, drivers, managers and others developed a decades-long scheme that resulted in the sexual abuse of young fans, the Illinois trial will focus on conduct during prior legal proceedings and video tapes allegedly made by Kelly that constituted child pornography,” the NBC report says.
Kelly has denied the allegations against him.
The post R. Kelly to Face Federal Child Porn Trial in Chicago appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.