NEW YORK — R. Kelly is slamming his former lawyers for failing to get jurors removed from his case who had watched the blockbuster docuseries detailing accusations of sexual abuse of minors against the R&B star.
The disgraced R&B superstar, stuck in jail at Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center awaiting sentencing, wrote an affidavit to the judge in his case saying his lawyers didn’t allow him to even be a part of the jury selection process.
“At certain points during jury selection, I did hear that some jurors may have seen the 'Surviving R. Kelly' docuseries and that concerned me greatly,” Kelly wrote. “I raised my concerns with my attorneys but they shooed me off. I was nothing more than a bystander in the process.”
Kelly was found guilty on all counts by the jury after his 25-day trial in Brooklyn Federal Court. But with a new lawyer on his case, Kelly now argues that two jurors who watched “Surviving R. Kelly” never should have been impaneled.
“There was no strategy involved in choosing the jurors that sat on my jury as far as I could tell,” Kelly wrote. “At least there was no trial strategy that involved my input.”
The “I Believe I Can Fly” singer was convicted in September of running a decadeslong sexual abuse operation that targeted women, girls and some young men who attended his sold-out concerts or met him in malls or even at a McDonald’s in Chicago.
He beat girls and women with shoes, cords and his fists and delivered spankings that left bruises when they broke his rules, the women testified. He called the spankings “chastisements.”
He is now trying to push back his Brooklyn sentencing in the case, arguing he should be allowed to face another sex abuse federal trial in Chicago Federal Court first. He is also asking for a re-do of his trial in Brooklyn Federal Court.
Kelly’s representation at the 2021 trial was a circus from before the trial started, with the “Sex Me” singer getting rid of two of his long-term lawyers just weeks before the court proceedings began.
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