Content Warning: This article discusses sexual assault, and rape. If you or someone you know are affected by the following story, you are not alone. To speak to someone, you can call Lifeline on 13 11 14, or 1800 RESPECT on 1800 737 732.
The R. Kelly legal saga has taken another turn, with US lawyer Michael Avenatti claiming that the rapper “rigged” his 2008 trial.
Over the last few months, the world has been waking up to the allegations of sexual abuse brought against R. Kelly. While many of these allegations had been well-known for some time, their increased visibility is due in part to the Lifetime documentary, Surviving R. Kelly.
The documentary provided an in-depth look at the accusations made against the controversial artist, including such claims that he has had sex with underage girls, has physically abused numerous women, and even ran a “sex cult” from his Chicago home.
However, back in 2002, R. Kelly’s crimes were brought to mainstream attention after a video emerged of R. Kelly engaging in sexual acts with an underage girl.
Despite Kelly’s claims that the man in the video was not him, he was indicted on 21 counts of child pornography later in the year.
Soon, images of the girl at the centre of the video were found in Kelly’s possession, though these charges were dropped due to problems relating to the search that recovered them.
Eventually, R. Kelly did go to trial over the charges of child pornography, with a jury eventually finding him not guilty on all 14 counts he was charged with.
At the time though, one witness noted that Kelly’s innocence was more than likely due to the jury’s reaction to the artist’s “star power”, though a prominent US lawyer has alleged the reasons behind his acquittal are much more damning.
We have now uncovered how R Kelly was able to gain his acquittal in 2008: We have discovered substantial evidence that he and certain enablers engaged in systematic witness intimidation, evidence tampering, physical threats, and payments to witnesses. They rigged the trial.
— Michael Avenatti (@MichaelAvenatti) February 18, 2019
Taking to Twitter yesterday, celebrity attorney Michael Avenatti, who is representing a man described by CNN as a “whistleblower against Kelly”, claimed that R. Kelly had in fact “rigged” his 2008 trial.
“We have discovered substantial evidence that he and certain enablers engaged in systematic witness intimidation, evidence tampering, physical threats, and payments to witnesses,” Avenatti wrote. “They rigged the trial.”
This news of course comes just a day after it was revealed that a grand jury in the US have come together to view a video tape featuring new evidence that allegedly shows R. Kelly engaging in sexual acts with an underage girl.
While Avenatti handed the tape into the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office in Chicago over a week ago, he also made a point of noting that it is different to the tape at the centre of Kelly’s 2008 trial.
“My client knows the identity of the girl and R. Kelly,” Avenatti explained. “He identified the two of them on the videotape. He worked for and has known R. Kelly for decades and he met the girl on a number of occasions.”
While the grand jury that has been reportedly assembled are apparently in the process of viewing the evidence in order to see if there is enough for prosecutors to charge R. Kelly, the rapper’s legal team disputes that such an event is taking place.
In a statement given to TMZ, Kelly’s lawyer Steven Greenberg stated that he is “unaware of any ‘special’ grand jury being convened to look into R. Kelly. There is no record of any such proceedings, and no need for them. The report is false.”
