BROOKLYN (CN) — R. Kelly’s lead defense attorney compared his client to Martin Luther King Jr. and former Vice President Mike Pence during closing arguments in the singer’s federal racketeering trial.
Deveraux Cannick, who joined Kelly’s legal team in the eleventh hour after two Chicago-based attorneys withdrew from the case, addressed the jury for about two and a half hours on Thursday.
Kelly, who is accused of luring women and girls into an abusive sex ring that lasted for decades, in which Kelly’s girlfriends had to follow strict rules — wearing baggy clothing, avoiding eye contact with other men, greeting Kelly when he entered a room — and disobedience would earn a punishment. The 54-year-old beat his girlfriends, dragged them by the hair, and spanked them hard enough to tear skin, calling it “chastising” them, victims testified at trial.
Cannick, of the firm Aiello & Cannick, denied that anything happening in his client’s sex life was illegal.
“His label marketed him as a sex symbol, a playboy. So he started living that sex symbol, playboy lifestyle,” Cannick said. “Where’s the crime in that?”
Throughout his arguments, Cannick made the point that sexual kinks in and of themselves are not crimes.
He said Kelly was his accusers’ “meal ticket,” and that they were looking to make money off their allegations, including from book deals and by speaking in the Lifetime documentary series “Surviving R. Kelly.” (Victim witnesses who testified about participating in the series said they were paid around a thousand dollars for photos they provided.)
Cannick also contended that the victims who testified knew what they signed up for, and that the government had allowed them to lie or mislead the jury. In fact, Cannick argued, Kelly’s fight for justice is comparable to King’s commitment to civil rights and upholding the U.S. Constitution.
“That’s all Robert is trying to do,” Cannick said. “If the government brings charges against you, the government has to prove them beyond a reasonable doubt.”
Addressing repeated allegations that Kelly forced his sexual partners to call him “daddy,” Cannick suggested that using parental terms in a romantic context is more common than the government led jurors to believe.
“The former vice president, Mike Pence, calls his wife ‘mom,’” Cannick noted. (Pence reportedly refers to his wife as “Mother,” and does not dine alone with other women.)
Cannick said the government failed to show that Kelly’s employees — who testified about handing out the “I Believe I Can Fly” singer’s phone number to recruit women, booking travel for them and fielding questions about whether they had Kelly’s permission to eat or use the bathroom — were part of a racketeering enterprise.
“R. Kelly didn’t have to recruit women,” Cannick argued.
Claiming that victim statements were inconsistent and unfair to Kelly, Cannick asked the jury to acquit his client.
“He doesn’t need your sympathy,” Cannick said. “He just needs your sense of fairness and courage.”
Kelly’s trial in the Eastern District of New York is coming to a close after more than a month of testimony from 45 government and five defense witnesses. If found guilty on one or more of the nine counts against him, the singer faces between 10 years and life in prison.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Elizabeth Geddes’ closing arguments, which started on Wednesday afternoon, lasted for more than six hours as she went through each accused violation of federal anti-racketeering law — and associated Mann Act violations — listed in Kelly’s indictment.
“It is time to hold the defendant responsible for the pain he inflicted on each of his victims: Aaliyah, Stephanie, Sonja, Jerhonda, Jane and Faith,” Geddes said. “It is now time for the defendant, Robert Kelly, to pay for his crimes. Convict him.”
Geddes on Thursday described a video shown to the jury last week, which was not played for the public, and apparently featured a former girlfriend of Kelly’s who testified as Anna.
“The defendant instructed Anna to take off her clothes, and ominously tells her, ‘four licks.’”
Kelly spanked Anna four times, according to Geddes, who described “absolute anguish” on Anna’s face. He then instructed her — as Anna testified — to undress and walk back and forth, calling herself a “stupid bitch” and other degrading names.
Geddes also described videos of sexual encounters similar to interactions that victims testified about during trial, in which Kelly directed others’ every move. Witnesses said Kelly orchestrated sex between women and recorded the interactions, as well as between women and men. The latter was sometimes used as punishment for his girlfriends, according to victim testimony.
Follow Nina Pullano on Twitter
Follow @NinaPullano
Subscribe to Closing Arguments
Sign up for new weekly newsletter Closing Arguments to get the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and hot cases and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world.
