Singer R. Kelly will be transferred to New York where he will be tried for sex trafficking

• Singer R. Kelly is awaiting multiple lawsuits related to sex crimes.
• R. Kelly has been in pre-trial detention since 2019.
• R. Kelly was acquitted in 2008 in his trial for child pornography and misappropriation of a minor.

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R. Kelly will finally be tried in New York this summer. After several delays, a federal judge gave the green light on Thursday and the trial will begin on August 9. The interpreter ofIgnition is accused of a dozen sexual assaults and embezzlement of minors. He is currently being held in Chicago, awaiting another trial, which could begin this fall, in another federal case related to a large sex crimes investigation.

The trial in federal court in Brooklyn, New York, had been postponed due to the pandemic. Nonetheless, Justice Ann Donnelly informed lawyers that there were court safeguards that would move forward. The judge also said the government should start preparing for R. Kelly’s transfer to a New York jail, most likely the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, according to
ABC News. The exact timeline is not known.

Trafficking in minors

Brooklyn prosecutors say R. Kelly ran a large company made up of his managers, bodyguards and other employees who helped him recruit women and girls for sex. A jury should hear the testimony of the alleged victims, each identified in court documents only as “Jane Doe” and by identification numbers.

In 2008, the singer was acquitted in his trial for child pornography and child abuse after filming sex with a 13-year-old girl. The accusations against him resurfaced in 2017 and gave rise to a movement dubbed #MuteRKelly (silence R. Kelly) encouraging a boycott of all of his work.

Speech release

In January 2019, a documentary series entitled Surviving R. Kellygave voice to dozens of victims, fans, choristers, singers, dancers, bodyguards and assistants, allowing them to testify with their faces uncovered for six one-hour episodes. In January 2020, a sequel was broadcast in which the same victims testified this time to the pressures and threats they had suffered since the broadcast of the previous documentaries.

These documentaries have helped the authorities build a solid case against the singer, arrested in 2019. He is released after paying bail. In July of the same year, he was accused of obstructing justice after paying the family of one of the victims in exchange for his silence. His trial then became federal and new charges were added. Arrested again, he was remanded in custody pending trial, initially scheduled for April 27, 2020. The Covid-19 pandemic delayed the proceedings and R. Kelly, despite numerous requests for release, is still behind bars. The singer of I Believe I Can Fly denies all the facts with which he is accused and pleads not guilty.

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