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A Jury Has Found R. Kelly Guilty on All Counts

A Jury Has Found R. Kelly Guilty on All Counts

The New York Times reports that a federal jury has found R. Kelly has guilty of racketeering, a charge that includes 12 criminal acts. He was also found guilty of eight violations of the Mann Act, a law that forbids taking a minor across state lines for criminal sex acts. R. Kelly will be sentenced in May, likely facing decades in prison.

The singer was charged in 2019, pleading not guilty to the litany of accusations brought against him. In August, the prosecution brought testimony from 45 witnesses against R. Kelly, culminating in three days of jury deliberation. Though he has maintained his innocence throughout, he was found guilty of every single charge brought against him in the state of New York.

He is still facing other charges, including federal child pornography and obstruction charges in Illinois and sexual misconduct charges in Minnesota, to which he has also pled not guilty.

“Today’s guilty verdict forever brands R. Kelly as a predator, who used his fame and fortune to prey on the young, the vulnerable and the voiceless for his own sexual gratification,” said Jacquelyn Kasulis, who is the U.S. attorney from the Eastern District of New York. She added that R. Kelly is “a predator who used his inner circle to ensnare underage girls and young men and women for decades, in a sordid web of sex abuse, exploitation and humiliation.”

R. Kelly’s case has been years in the making, as witnesses and victims detailed stories of physical and sexual abuse that went back to Aaliyah, his late wife whom he married in 1995 when she was just 15 and he was 27. Their marriage lasted less than a year. Aaliyah perished in a plane crash in 2001.

“To the victims in this case, your voices were heard and justice was finally served,” Kasulis said.

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