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R. Kelly

Agence France-Presse

<div><span class="fr-img-caption fr-fic fr-dib"><span class="fr-img-wrap"><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/171421324189620220629-rkelly.jpg" class="fr-fic fr-dib"/><span class="fr-inner" style="text-align:left"><span id="isPasted" style="color:rgb(51, 51, 51);letter-spacing:normal;orphans:2;text-align:left;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;white-space:pre-wrap;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-color:initial;display:inline !important;float:none">R&amp;B singer R. Kelly (center) arrives for a child support hearing at the Cook County Circuit Court at the Daley Center in Chicago, on March 6, 2019. <em>Tannen Maury, EPA-EFE.</em></span><em> </em></span></span></span>WASHINGTON — A US federal appeals court has upheld R. Kelly&#x27;s 20-year prison sentence over child pornography and other crimes, rejecting the R&amp;B singer&#x27;s defense that the case was filed too late.</div><p>Kelly was sentenced in February last year but his lawyers argued the statute of limitations had passed by the time he was charged, a defense the Chicago court rejected on Friday.</p><p>&quot;For years, Robert Sylvester Kelly abused underage girls. By employing a complex scheme to keep victims quiet, he long evaded consequences,&quot; judge Amy St. Eve wrote in the ruling by the three-panel bench.</p><p>&quot;Those crimes caught up with him at last. But Kelly — interposing a statute-of-limitations defense — thinks he delayed the charges long enough to elude them entirely. The statute says otherwise, so we affirm his conviction.&quot;</p><div><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/entertainment/02/24/23/r-kelly-gets-new-20-year-jail-term-for-child-porn">READ: R. Kelly gets new 20-year jail term for child porn crimes</a></div><p>Kelly, 57, is already serving a 30-year sentence he received after a Brooklyn jury in a separate federal trial convicted him on racketeering and sex trafficking charges.</p><p>The two sentences would be served concurrently, with all but one year taken at the same time, adding up to a maximum of 31 years in jail.</p><p>His lawyer Jennifer Bonjean told US media that Kelly would appeal the decision before the Supreme Court.</p><p>&quot;We are disappointed in the ruling but our fight is far from over,&quot; Bonjean said in a statement.</p><div><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/entertainment/2024/3/26/diddy-s-us-homes-raided-by-us-federal-agents-827">RELATED: Diddy&#x27;s US homes raided by US federal agents<br/></a></div><div><strong>Anonymous tapes</strong></div><p>Kelly was convicted by a New York court in September 2022 on six of 13 counts: three of producing child pornography and three of enticement of a minor.</p><p>The federal conviction in Chicago came one year later and was widely seen as a milestone for the #MeToo movement: it was the first major sex abuse trial where the majority of the accusers were Black women.</p><p>It was also the first time Kelly faced criminal consequences for the abuse he was rumored for decades to have inflicted on women and children.</p><p>A Chicago native who soared to global celebrity on a burst of 1990s megahits including &quot;I Believe I Can Fly&quot;, Kelly became one of R&amp;B&#x27;s biggest stars, and dodged censure despite a dubious personal life — including his ultimately annulled marriage to 15-year-old protege Aaliyah.</p><p>In the early 2000s, Chicago reporter Jim DeRogatis anonymously received two tapes that appeared to show Kelly having sex with young girls.</p><p>The artist was indicted for child pornography but following years of trial delays — during which he continued to tour and record — Kelly was acquitted on all counts in a controversial trial.</p><div><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/entertainment/2024/4/26/weinstein-accuser-felt-sick-after-conviction-overturned-751">READ: Weinstein accuser felt &#x27;sick&#x27; after conviction overturned</a></div><p>DeRogatis and other reporters continued to publish allegations of assault and abuse, however, as two women in Atlanta founded the &quot;Mute R. Kelly&quot; movement, which encouraged boycotting his music.</p><p>It wasn&#x27;t until January 2019, when a Lifetime docuseries once again aired the allegations, that a sea change began.</p><p>His label dropped him and as outrage boiled over, fresh legal action brewed: prosecutors levelled state charges against him after which federal prosecutors in both Illinois and New York indicted Kelly.</p><div><strong>© Agence France-Presse</strong></div>

<p>Kelly, 57, is already serving a 30-year sentence he received after a Brooklyn jury in a separate federal trial convicted him on racketeering and sex trafficking charges.</p>

Kelly, 57, is already serving a 30-year sentence he received after a Brooklyn jury in a separate federal trial convicted him on racketeering and sex trafficking charges.

US court upholds R. Kelly child pornography conviction

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US court upholds R. Kelly child pornography conviction

Agence France-Presse

Published Apr 27, 2024 06:21 PM PHT

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R. Kelly

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