Reports have surfaced that R. Kelly refused to testify in his sex trafficking trial.
Before attorneys gave their closing arguments, Kelly told U.S. District Judge Ann Donnelly that he wouldn’t take the witness stand.
“You don’t want to testify, correct?” Donnelly asked Kelly. He responded: “Yes, ma’am.”
Several female accusers and two male accusers accused Kelly and his team of recruiting potential victims at his shows and at malls and fast-food restaurants where he spent time.
Kelly’s attorneys Thomas Farinella and Nicole Becker said they oppose the motion to include Kelly’s male accusers because it’s “unequivocally inadmissible under the Federal Rules of Evidence.”
R. KELLY CLAIMS HE WAS ROBBED
He was also afraid the jury would be homophobic.
“The government’s request is untimely, not relevant and if permitted will cause severe prejudice to Mr. Kelly of which such prejudice outweighs the probative value,” it states.
“The defendant set rules, lots of them, and he demanded complete obedience,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Elizabeth Geddes told jurors, adding that “for many years what happened in the defendant’s world stayed in the defendant’s world,” she added. “But no longer.”