Jury selection set to begin in R. Kelly sex trafficking case

NEW YORK (AP) — After several delays, the first phase of the sex trafficking trial of R&B hitmaker R. Kelly will begin with jury selection Monday in New York City.

A judge in federal court in Brooklyn will question potential jurors about whether they can keep an open mind about Kelly two years after he was charged with abusing women and girls for nearly two decades. The proceeding will occur amid coronavirus pandemic precautions restricting the press and the public to overflow courtrooms with video feeds.

Kelly, 54, has been locked up since he was indicted, mostly housed in a federal jail in Chicago. He was moved last month to the federal Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn to face trial in a case that’s further diminished his superstar status.

Last week, defense attorney Devereaux Cannick told a judge that Kelly needs to be measured for new clothing because he’s gained so much weight in jail. And he asked that court transcripts be provided at no cost because Kelly has been unable to work for two years, saying: “His funds are depleted.”

The Grammy-winning, multiplatinum-selling singer has denied any wrongdoing and pleaded not guilty to charges accusing him of leading an enterprise of managers, body- guards and other employees who helped him recruit women and girls for sex. Federal prosecutors say the group selected victims at concerts and other venues and arranged for them to travel to see Kelly.

Defense lawyers have said Kelly’s alleged victims were groupies who turned up at his shows and made it known they “were dying to be with him.” They only started accusing him of abuse years later when public sentiment shifted in the #MeToo era, they said.

The trial had been expected to start earlier in the year. But opening statements were moved to Aug. 18 after Kelly fired his original defense team.

Jurors are expected to hear testimony from several of his accusers. A judge has ruled that the women will only be referred to by their first names.

Prosecutors have said the jury will also hear evidence that Kelly schemed with oth- ers to pay for a fake ID for Aaliyah, a singer on the rise at 15 years old, in a secret ceremony in 1994.

Aaliyah is identified as “Jane Doe #1” in court papers because she was still a minor when Kelly began a sexual relationship with her and believed she had become pregnant, the papers say.

“As a result, in an effort to shield himself from criminal charges related to his illegal sexual relationship with Jane Doe #1, Kelly arranged to secretly marry her to prevent her from being compelled to testify against him in the future,” the papers say.

Aaliyah, whose full name was Aaliyah Dana Haughton, worked with Kelly, who wrote and produced her 1994 debut

album, “Age Ain’t Nothing But A Number.” She died in a plane crash in 2001 at age 22.

The case is only part of the legal peril facing the singer, born Robert Sylvester Kelly. He also has pleaded not guilty to sex-related charges in Illinois and Minnesota.