R. Kelly’s federal sex crime case in Brooklyn will have strict security in place.
R&B’s infamous singer, R. Kelly, will face his federal sex trafficking and racketeering case in Brooklyn before an anonymous jury. According to Page Six, they will also be partially sequestered. This is according to a newly unsealed decision made by US District Judge Ann Donnelly. The decision was made on October 8 but was only revealed last Friday, October 30.
Judge Donnelly also gave a glimpse at the protocol that the high profile case will follow. Some measures included marshals escorting jurors in and out of the Brooklyn federal courthouse on each day of the case and jurors being subject to sequester during all breaks to protect them from outside influence. However, they will be allowed to go home at the end of each day.
Such high-security measures are being followed because of the sensitive nature of the case, she said. She added that the charges involved in the case were tied: “to promote the defendant’s music, to recruit women and girls to engage in illegal sexual activity with the defendant and to produce child pornography.”
The embattled singer is also facing charges in Illinois listed as: “participating in a long-running conspiracy to obstruct justice and receive child pornography,” she added.
In both cases, it is alleged that Kelly tried to silence witnesses using threats, bribes, and in some instances, blackmail. Another reason that such strict measures were implemented also had to do with the singer’s popularity, and she believed that: “social media will become a tool for the harassment and intimidation of the jurors should their identities be made public.”
Prosecutors previously argued that during his 2008 child pornography trial in Chicago, he played a pivotal role in trying to influence the jury. He was eventually acquitted in that case. They also revealed that three of Kelly’s associates had been recently arrested for trying the same tactics in Brooklyn.
R. Kelly’s defense team argued that the measures were too strict and that there was no justifiable cause to implement them. The R&B legend has been in jail in Chicago since his arrest last year. No date has been set yet for the case to begin.
