Singer R. Kelly seeks appeals court relief from 30-year prison term
a 30-year prison sentence in June 2022.Assistant US Attorney Kayla Bensing said Kelly’s network of aides and employees were part of the singer’s “system in place that lured young people in to his orbit” before he “took over their lives.”At trial, several women testified that they were ordered to sign nondisclosure forms and were subjected to threats and punishments such as violent spankings if they broke what one referred to as “Rob’s rules.”Some of the judges questioned whether the employees knew about Kelly’s illegal activities with teenage girls.“What evidence is there that staff who arranged these things knew that they were underage? asked Circuit Judge Denny Chin.The prosecutor responded by citing numerous instances of testimony, including one in which a woman testified that she told a member of Kelly’s entourage that she was 16 when he asked her age. Others knew some girls were not yet 18 because they booked flights for them and the girls had to provide their birth dates, she noted.“So this is all evidence that the jury was entitled to infer that Kelly’s inner circle knew what was going on.