R. Kelly’s Lawyer Aims to Discredit Accuser Amid Tearful Testimony

An legal professional for R. Kelly attempted to discredit a single of the accusers leveling allegations of sexual abuse in opposition to the singer on Thursday, soon after she’d claimed he had slapped and choked her throughout what she described as their final sexual encounter extra than 10 many years ago.

Jerhonda Johnson Speed, the first witness testifying for prosecutors in Kelly’s extensive-delayed racketeering demo in New York, is among the various females leveling claims of sexual abuse against Kelly. She statements she first achieved him when she was a 14-year-previous enthusiast outdoors one particular of his past sexual-misconduct trials, and initial had intercourse with him shortly after she turned 16.

According to the Chicago Tribune, Kelly attorney Devereaux Cannick on Thursday adopted the defense’s stated system of portraying Kelly’s accusers as superfans. Cannick displayed images of a teenaged Tempo going for walks beside Kelly outside the house the Leighton Prison Court Making, smiling. He also requested what the Tribune explained as “a sequence of extraordinarily detailed inquiries about what Speed stated was her final sexual come across with Kelly in January 2010. Did she tumble down when he slapped her, Cannick asked? Which facet of her experience did he slap? Did it go away any marks or swelling? Did he slap her first or choke her? Where was she when he spat on her?”

In the second spherical of questioning, as Pace browse from her journal, she broke down and commenced to cry, the Tribune documented.

“I went to Rob’s property and Rob called me foolish, he identified as me a foolish b——,” she browse. “Rob slapped me a few times and reported if I lied to him yet again it’s not likely to be an open hand future time … he spit on my experience and in my mouth. He choked me during an argument. I had sex with him, oral sex with him, then I got fed up and I went household and confessed.”

She also told the jury that, on yet another occasion, “He wished me to set my hair up in pigtails and gown like a Lady Scout.”

Cannick requested Speed if she was a groupie or a stalker or a liar, or if she had a sexual romance with a single of Kelly’s associates, and also questioned the veracity of her testimony for the reason that she was not carrying the unfastened garments in the pics that she and other people alleged he experienced demanded, or acquire images of herself immediately after Kelly allegedly struck and choked her, or that she went to civil legal professionals with her promises in its place of law enforcement. Speed beforehand testified that these attorneys discouraged her from bringing rates.

Later on in her testimony, Rate statements that though she was confined to a home at Kelly’s mansion outdoors Chicago, at 1 level she was not allowed to use a toilet for 3 days other accusers have manufactured related allegations. Having said that, Cannick observed that a single of the rooms in which she was confined had a rest room that position was not fixed.

Cannick also experienced Rate examine from a settlement settlement she had  struck with the singer, in which Kelly denied all wrongdoing and mentioned that she experienced introduced him with an ID displaying she was 19 at the time.

The testimony ongoing from Wednesday, when Speed, now 28, instructed jurors of a sexual partnership she had with Kelly in excess of the system of 6 months in 2009 and 2010. She claimed his abuse escalated as the romantic relationship progressed, at occasions extending to violence and “rules” that involved carrying particular shut and becoming confined to rooms at his homes. (Head in this article for a timeline of the activities top up to Kelly’s New York trial.)

In the coming days, the jury is envisioned to listen to specifics about Kelly’s temporary, unlawful relationship to Aaliyah and abuses other accusers allegedly endured, including Azriel Clary, who had spoken in support of the singer until eventually previous year, when she remaining his condominium and joined all those accusing him of abuse.

The demo is anticipated to several previous weeks and has a maximum sentence of 10 years to up to life in prison, prosecutors stated. When the New York demo concludes, Kelly faces a number of fees in Chicago, like sexual abuse, assault and witness tampering. He also faces fees in Minnesota.