Federal prosecutors have rested their case-in-chief in opposition to R. Kelly, after calling some two dozen witnesses in opposition to the disgraced R&B singer and his two co-defendants.

Their announcement got here round 12:40 p.m. Tuesday, through the third week of trial. Decide Harry Leinenweber adjourned the proceedings till Thursday morning, when protection attorneys can start calling their witnesses.

In a shocking transfer, prosecutors closed after calling solely 4 of the 5 Kelly accusers who they stated jurors would hear from through the trial.

The fourth lady took the stand Tuesday morning.

“Nia” was 15 when she approached Kelly for an autograph at a mall in Atlanta, she testified. Kelly gave her his signature – and likewise wrote his telephone quantity on the paper, she stated.

They started to have telephone conversations, and through one, she advised him she was 15, she stated. He stated he wished her to return see considered one of his exhibits, and organized for her to journey to Minnesota for a live performance, she testified.

A limousine picked her up at her mom’s house in Atlanta – and on the way in which to the airport they stopped at a gasoline station so she may choose up a single rose to present to Kelly.

“I wished him to understand how I felt about him. And I felt that it might be a gesture that may be candy, that he would love,” she stated.

She went to the live performance in Minnesota, and Kelly got here to her lodge room the following day, she stated.

Kelly hugged her and kissed her on the lips in greeting, she stated. She requested if they may take a photograph collectively, however Kelly declined.

Kelly instructed Nia to take off her garments, stroll round, after which sit subsequent to him on the mattress, she testified.

She complied, and Kelly kissed her, requested her if she was a virgin, and commenced to carry out a intercourse act on himself, she testified.

When he was completed, he left the room in a rush, she testified.

“He cleaned himself off and he left,” she stated. “… I by no means received an opportunity to present him a rose.”

Nia sat very nonetheless as she testified, protecting her gaze on the prosecutor asking her questions. Her testimony started quietly and nervously – she needed to be requested to maneuver nearer to the microphone – however she appeared to develop extra comfy because the questioning continued.

Since Kelly had talked about eager to see her in Chicago, Nia made preparations to stick with household there after college set free in the summertime of 1996, she testified.

One night time she went with three cousins to go to him at his studio, she stated.

Kelly greeted them, however expressed shock that she didn’t come alone, she testified. Over the course of the night time he summoned her away twice so they may kiss alone within the hallway. Throughout a kind of situations he groped her below her pants, she testified.

Nia didn’t inform her cousins about any of that, she testified: “Their cause for coming was to stop something from occurring, and I didn’t need them to know.”

Later that summer season she tried contacting him a number of instances and he by no means received again to her, she testified.

They bumped into one another once more a while later in California, throughout a video shoot for Kelly’s “If I May Flip Again the Arms of Time,” Nia testified. She was an aspiring actor and mannequin on the time, she stated. Kelly didn’t

“He by no means acknowledged me or spoke to me, however typically I felt he would look in my path and might need acknowledged me,” she stated.

In 2002, Nia filed a lawsuit in opposition to Kelly with the allegations of underage sexual contact, and Kelly agreed to pay $500,000, she testified.

Nia had been very composed via a lot of the direct, however her expression grew pained when she was requested in regards to the lawsuit. And as Kelly’s protection legal professional, Jennifer Bonjean, raised a collection of objections to the questions in regards to the settlement, Nia reached for tissue and commenced dabbing tears from her eyes.

On cross-examination, Bonjean was skeptical that Nia may have boarded a flight with out identification, as she testified, and pressed her on whether or not she really advised Kelly her age. Nia remained adamant that she knowledgeable Kelly she was 15 earlier than he requested her to return see him on tour.

“For those who advised him you have been 15, it’s essential to have additionally mentioned the very fact your mom wouldn’t condone or consent you leaving the state of Georgia, getting on a airplane by your self, and going to see a grown man, proper?”

Prosecutors objected, and Decide Harry Leinenweber sustained the objection.

Nia’s mom was a nurse and had already left for work by the point the white limousine got here to choose Nia up for her journey to Minnesota, she stated.

Bonjean asserted that Nia filed her lawsuit “not lengthy” after Kelly snubbed her on the music video shoot, and after she heard Kelly was in hassle on child-pornography costs.

Nia testified she contacted the legal professional to see if she might be useful as a witness in opposition to Kelly — a declare of which Bonjean was audibly skeptical.

“You contacted a non-public legal professional … since you is likely to be useful within the prison prosecution?” she requested. “You didn’t contact the Prepare dinner County State’s Legal professional and allow them to know?”

Prosecutors briefly known as to the stand Sheryl Ware, who recognized herself because the ex-wife of Nia’s cousin. She was among the many group of cousins who got here alongside to Kelly’s studio when Nia was 15, she stated.

Ware famous that she acknowledged Kelly as a result of he was carrying the identical shirt he was carrying within the music video for “Gotham Metropolis,” she stated, and so they have been on the studio that night time till the early morning.

As they have been leaving, Kelly stated “let me speak to (Nia) for a minute,” Ware testifies.

“I used to be like ‘you get 5 minutes.’ So that they went out within the hallway,” she stated. “They have been on the market precisely 5 minutes, ‘trigger I got here out in 5 minutes.”

Prosecutors in R. Kelly’s Chicago federal trial may relaxation their case as early as Tuesday, they introduced forward of jurors’ arrival within the courtroom.

That would put the trial on monitor to complete subsequent week, given a number of days for protection witnesses to testify on behalf of Kelly and his co-defendants.

Testimony continued Tuesday morning from a childhood good friend of a lady who stated R. Kelly sexually assaulted her when she was underage.

Federal prosecutors known as Kelly Adams to the stand late Monday to corroborate the claims of her good friend Tracy, who testified Monday utilizing solely her first identify. There was intensive dialogue throughout cross-examination Monday about what yr Tracy met the singer. Tracy testified it was in 1999, when she was 16; nonetheless, protection legal professional Jennifer Bonjean asserted strenuously that it may solely have occurred a yr later, when Tracy was 17 — the authorized age of consent.

On cross-examination Tuesday from Bonjean, Adams was insistent that she and Tracy met Kelly when Tracy was 16. However in a signed assertion as a part of Tracy’s 2001 lawsuit, Adams stated that they met Kelly in 2000, when Tracy would have been 17.

“You suppose your reminiscence is healthier in August of 2022 than it was whenever you signed your assertion of August of ‘01?” Bonjean requested.

“In August of 2001, I don’t know what that’s, however I do know for certain it wasn’t 2000 after we met him,” she replied.

A few of her prior statements to legislation enforcement additionally stated Tracy might need been older than 16, Bonjean famous. Adams stated these have been merely estimates.

“‘Thinks,’ ‘perhaps,’ these are all unsure phrases,” she stated.

Tracy on Monday advised jurors in intensive element about Kelly’s sexual abuse and assault of her when she was 16. One other Kelly accuser additionally testified Monday below the pseudonym “Pauline,” saying she had sexual contact with the disgraced singer dozens if not lots of of instances when she was underage.

Each ladies got here below intense cross-examination from Bonjean, who asserted that each ladies had really reached 17 — Illinois’ age of consent — once they started their sexual relationships with Kelly.

Kelly’s trial now in its third week on the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse, which has to this point featured almost two dozen witnesses.

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Kelly, 55, is charged with 13 counts of manufacturing of kid pornography, conspiracy to supply little one pornography and conspiracy to hinder justice.

Additionally on trial are former Kelly associates Derrel McDavid and Milton “June” Brown, who, in accordance with the indictment, schemed to purchase again incriminating intercourse tapes that had been taken from Kelly’s assortment and conceal years of alleged sexual abuse of underage women.

The trial’s first week targeted on “Jane,” who recognized herself because the lady being sexually abused by the then-superstar in three separate movies from the Nineteen Nineties.

A type of movies grew to become the topic of Kelly’s 2008 Prepare dinner County trial, throughout which he was acquitted of kid pornography costs as a result of, prosecutors now allege, Kelly and his associates went to nice lengths to maintain “Jane” quiet and get better different incriminating footage.

Witnesses final week largely targeted on these efforts. Three folks testified that Kelly’s workforce paid them to deliver him movies of his home made little one pornography whereas he was awaiting his Prepare dinner County trial. Protection attorneys, throughout prolonged cross-examinations, have challenged their tales as inconsistent and tried to color them as unreliable extortionists.

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