MANHATTAN (CN) — The federal government failed to prove R. Kelly's entourage explicitly recruited underage girls to participate in his career-spanning sex ring, the recording artist argued to a Second Circuit panel on Monday in an attempt to overturn his conviction and to return seized funds from his Bureau of Prisons commissary account.
R. Kelly, 57, was sentenced to 30 years on sex trafficking and racketeering charges in 2022. At a six-week trial in Brooklyn federal court, a slew of witnesses said the “I Believe I Can Fly” singer used his entourage to systematically recruit and abuse young women and minors, including the late singer Aaliyah.
Jennifer Bonjean, Kelly’s attorney, told the three-judge panel Monday that there wasn’t enough evidence to show that Kelly’s entourage were actively recruiting women.
“What they did prove was that … perhaps there was efforts to pass a phone number, invite them backstage,” Bonjean said.
U.S. Circuit Judge Susan Carney, a Barack Obama appointee, then asked Bonjean if a criminal enterprise must have an illegal purpose to still be considered on racketeering charges.
Bonjean said she believed it did and added that federal prosecutors did not make it clear at trial that Kelly’s employees were explicitly trying to recruit underage women for him.
“At best, the government demonstrated that the defendant used unwitting, low-level employees to carry out anodyne tasks that arguably facilitated his sexual needs but who had no knowledge, intent or objective to promote his ‘illegal’ sexual activities,” Kelly said in a filed brief.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Kayla Bensing disagreed on Monday, pointing to several instances in which trial witnesses testified that Kelly’s entourage knew how old the women were.
A victim who testified as Stephanie said she first met Kelly when a man approached her at a McDonald’s in Chicago when she was 16. He asked her how old she was, gestured to Kelly sitting in the restaurant and said he wanted her to call him.
Over the course of their sexual relationship, Stephanie described Kelly as “controlling, intimidating,” and said she was not allowed to speak to men and was often transported by Kelly’s employees.
Other victims of Kelly also said he exerted complete control over their lives, including directing them to have sex with each other and other men, and even limiting when they could eat or go to the bathroom.
Bensing also pointed to court testimony that Kelly’s entourage would carry slips of paper with the singer’s phone number scrawled or printed on them and would hand them out at concerts, malls and restaurants, at Kelly’s instruction.
“This was all evidence that Kelly’s entire crew knew what was going on,” Bensing said Monday.
U.S. Circuit Judge Richard J. Sullivan, a Donald Trump appointee, also pressed Bensing on if an illegal purpose is necessary to prove something is an enterprise.
“Do you agree with Ms. Bonjean there has to be an illegal purpose to establish an enterprise?” Sullivan said.
Bensing said she did not, but added the evidence shows that Kelly’s entourage was fully aware of what they were doing.
Bonjean disagreed, countering that the government failed to prove Kelly’s entourage had the intent of assisting the singer in orchestrating his sex ring.
“This was not a collection of people who had a purpose to recruit girls for sexual pornography,” Bonjean said.
Bonjean also argued that the court wrongfully seized $27,000 from Kelly’s Bureau of Prisons commissary account for use against a future restitution award, claiming the federal government failed to show that Kelly had defaulted on his payment obligations.
“The government acted prematurely and without legal authority when it ordered the Bureau of Prisons to seize defendant’s monies from his trust account absent any showing that defendant defaulted or had shirked his payment obligations,” Kelly said in his brief.
The panel was rounded out by U.S. Circuit Judge Denny Chin, a Barack Obama appointee.
Follow @NikaSchoonover
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