R. Kelly Trial VerdictR. Kelly Is Found Guilty of All Counts and Faces Life in Prison

Mr. Kelly’s conviction marked a stunning fall for a man who was once one of the biggest names in R&B music. It came after the first Me Too-era trial in which most of the victims were Black women.

Troy Closson
Sept. 27, 2021, 7:00 p.m. ET

covers criminal justice in New York

R. Kelly is going to prison. Why did it take so long?

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R. Kelly Found Guilty on All Counts

The singer was convicted of federal racketeering and sex trafficking charges for a decades-long scheme to recruit women and underage girls for sex. Once one of the biggest names in popular music, he could face decades in prison.

“Today’s guilty verdict forever brands R. Kelly as a predator who used his fame and fortune to prey on the young, the vulnerable and the voiceless.” “Mr. Kelly is a prolific serial predator. Despite numerous reports of his destructive abuse over the years, Mr. Kelly’s brazen acts of intimidation against his accusers kept him shielded from prosecution.” “Kelly, after grooming, isolating and intimidating his child victims, recorded them being sexually abused and humiliated by him. He directed these videos and produced them, not only for his own sexual gratification, but in some instances for the purpose of using these videos to silence and threaten his victims with public exposure of these tapes if they ever revealed what he had done to them.” “Of course, Mr. Kelly is disappointed. He was not anticipating this verdict because based on the evidence, why should he anticipate this verdict? I’m sure — I’m sure we’ll be appealing.”

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The singer was convicted of federal racketeering and sex trafficking charges for a decades-long scheme to recruit women and underage girls for sex. Once one of the biggest names in popular music, he could face decades in prison.CreditCredit...Tannen Maury/EPA, via Shutterstock

The conviction of R. Kelly on all nine counts against him came as a significant moment in the Me Too movement for both Black women and for the music industry, ushering in a sense that, finally, justice had been served.

But the verdict on Monday also prompted an obvious question: Women have said that the singer’s abuses began as early as the start of the 1990s — why did it take three decades for the singer to receive criminal punishment?

Here are a few possible answers:

The entertainer had an expansive network of enablers around him, federal prosecutors said, from his closest confidantes and employees to many in the music industry who knew of the concerns about his behavior but did not intervene.

The government drew attention to what has been described as the “settlement factory” that kept his accusers quiet, offering evidence of Mr. Kelly’s payments to women who made accusations in exchange for their silence.

And when that was not enough, Mr. Kelly “used his henchmen to lodge threats and exact revenge,” blackmailing women with nude photographs of themselves or embarrassing information, one prosecutor, Elizabeth Geddes, said in closing arguments.

Federal prosecutors also accused Mr. Kelly of paying witnesses to not cooperate with the authorities in the lead-up to his 2008 trial and acquittal. They said the singer let some witnesses know they could be “subject to physical harm” if they proceeded.

There are some cultural factors that may have helped Mr. Kelly avoid consequences for his behavior as well.

Legal experts and people who study sexual abuse have also suggested that the race of most of Mr. Kelly’s accusers likely played a role. Experts say Black women have historically been far more likely than white women to have their accusations about sexual misconduct distrusted or ignored.

“Our reality is that our society just does not view Black women and girls as credible,” said Kenyette Barnes, a co-founder of the #MuteRKelly campaign. “We assume that 15-year-old Black girls have the cognitive ability to manipulate a grown man.”

And some superstars have admitted that the race of the accusers shaped their perceptions in Mr. Kelly’s case.

“I didn’t value the accusers’ stories because they were Black women,” Chance the Rapper, who is from the singer’s hometown, Chicago, said during the “Surviving R. Kelly” documentary series.

Some of Mr. Kelly’s steadfast supporters continue to believe he is the victim of a larger, racist conspiracy to keep successful Black men from thriving, and that view was once more widespread in Black communities before his trial, experts note.

As a former television critic at The New York Times, Aisha Harris, said, two cultural touchstones — “Chappelle’s Show” and “The Boondocks” — also helped shape the perception of the accusations against R. Kelly through humor, keeping audiences amused instead of troubled.

The cultural climate has also changed dramatically since the allegations against Mr. Kelly first began to surface. After the singer pleaded not guilty to the charges that led to his 2008 trial, he performed alongside children at a church in Chicago the same day. He was embraced by the congregation.

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Rebecca Davis O’Brien
Sept. 27, 2021, 6:42 p.m. ET

reporting from the courthouse

R. Kelly will be sentenced in May, as other criminal charges move forward.

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R. Kelly left a 2019 court hearing in Chicago, where he still faces charges. Mr. Kelly’s lawyer said he did not know whether he would be transferred there before his sentencing in New York in May. Credit...Scott Olson/Getty Images

R. Kelly is set to be sentenced at 10 a.m. on May 4 by the same federal judge who oversaw his racketeering and sex trafficking trial in Brooklyn. Mr. Kelly, 54, faces 10 years to life in prison.

The intervening months will be busy. In the next few weeks, Mr. Kelly’s lawyers can file motions seeking to overturn the verdict. Mr. Kelly also faces charges in at least two other states, including federal child pornography and obstruction counts in Chicago. That trial has been postponed several times, and a new date has not been set. A court conference in that case has been set for Oct. 20.

Mr. Kelly’s lawyer said he didn’t know if that trial would go forward before the sentencing, or if Mr. Kelly would be moved to Chicago from the Brooklyn detention facility where he has been held for the duration of the New York trial. But the Chicago case will proceed, and it is likely that Mr. Kelly will eventually be moved there to face those charges.

At the Brooklyn sentencing, Judge Ann M. Donnelly will be able to consider victim-impact statements and testimony from Mr. Kelly’s accusers, some of which will be filed with the court ahead of time.

Troy Closson
Sept. 27, 2021, 6:18 p.m. ET

covers criminal justice in New York

Prosecutors thank R. Kelly’s accusers, saying verdict ‘forever brands’ him as a predator.

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Verdict ‘Forever Brands’ R. Kelly a Predator, Prosecutor Says

Federal prosecutors thanked the witnesses who testified against R. Kelly and commended the bravery of his victims after the singer was found guilty of running a decades-long scheme to recruit women and underage girls for sex.

“Today’s guilty verdict forever brands R. Kelly as a predator who used his fame and fortune to prey on the young, the vulnerable and the voiceless for his own sexual gratification. To the victims in this case, your voices were heard and justice was finally served. This conviction would not have been possible without the bravery and resilience of R. Kelly’s victims. I applaud their courage in revealing in open court the painful, intimate and horrific details of their lives with him. No one deserves what they experienced at his hands, or the threats and harassment they faced in telling the truth about what happened to them.” “Mr. Kelly is a prolific serial predator. Despite numerous reports of his destructive abuse over the years, Mr. Kelly’s brazen acts of intimidation against his accusers kept him shielded from prosecution. In their failed attempt to evade justice, Mr. Kelly and his associates made one critical error. They underestimated the resilience and courage of the victims who refused to be silenced.”

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Federal prosecutors thanked the witnesses who testified against R. Kelly and commended the bravery of his victims after the singer was found guilty of running a decades-long scheme to recruit women and underage girls for sex.CreditCredit...Stephanie Keith for The New York Times

After a New York jury convicted R. Kelly on all nine charges against him, federal prosecutors had a simple message for the people who testified against him: Thank you.

“Today’s guilty verdict forever brands R. Kelly as a predator who used his fame and fortune to prey on the young, the vulnerable and the voiceless for his own gratification,” Jacquelyn M. Kasulis, the acting U.S. attorney in Brooklyn, told a crowd of reporters and onlookers outside the federal courthouse on Monday.

She added: “We hope that today’s verdict brings some measure of comfort and closure to his victims.”

The first accusations against Mr. Kelly date back to the early 1990s, but he evaded criminal prosecution for years, even as additional women came forward, and he was acquitted of child pornography in 2008 after a sex-tape came to light that the authorities said depicted him with a 15-year-old girl.

Ms. Kasulis said that Mr. Kelly’s conviction on Monday delivered a powerful message to both the entertainer and other influential men: “No matter how long it takes, the long arm of the law will catch up with you.”

Addressing what he called a “decades-long reign of terror” inflicted by Mr. Kelly, Peter Fitzhugh, a special agent-in-charge at Homeland Security Investigations, the investigative arm of the Department of Homeland Security, said that the singer “made one critical error.”

“He underestimated the resilience and courage of the victims who refused to be silenced,” Mr. Fitzhugh said.

He added that he hoped the women and men who testified against the singer could now begin a “healing process” and restore the aspects of their lives that Mr. Kelly had destroyed.

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Troy Closson
Sept. 27, 2021, 6:12 p.m. ET

covers criminal justice in New York

Kim Foxx, the top prosecutor in Chicago who announced state sex crime charges against him there in 2019, told me she believes R. Kelly’s conviction was “monumental” for the Me Too movement and sends a significant message about whose stories matter. “It is my hope that through this trial and the toll that it has taken to get to this point, that we recognize that the movement is not at its fullest strength if everyone doesn’t have equal access to justice,” she said.

Emily Palmer
Sept. 27, 2021, 5:54 p.m. ET

reporting from the courthouse

R. Kelly made his victims write letters exonerating him. Instead, they helped convict him.

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Members of the prosecution team arrived at the federal courthouse in Brooklyn last month.Credit...Eduardo Munoz/Reuters

Much of the evidence that prosecutors used to convict R. Kelly came from the singer himself.

He obsessively collected message slips and letters written by the women he interacted with — some of them underage — according to Ryan Chabot, the lead federal investigator in the case. Mr. Chabot said he sifted through the evidence recovered from several searches of the singer’s Chicago apartment and storage facility.

Mr. Kelly kept some of the evidence in FedEx folders, with labels like “Old Messages,” and other pieces — like a seven-page, front-and-back, handwritten letter from a woman who testified for three days early in the trial — in protective sleeves in a locked safe.

Calling Mr. Kelly a “great man,” the woman wrote: “At the age of 17 I never had sex with Robert Kelly,” then proceeded to tick off a list of specific sex acts that she said she had not participated in with the R&B superstar.

Less than two years later, when the woman who had written the letter testified under a pseudonym, she said she had experienced coerced and recorded sexual encounters with the singer starting when she was 17. He hit her often, she said, and forced her to get an abortion.

Every letter that prosecutors introduced at trial came from Mr. Kelly’s personal collection in what appeared to be a yearslong attempt to build his defense even before the indictment in Brooklyn was unsealed. They were all signed by accusers who were at the forefront of the case against the singer.

Those accusers now say he forced them to write the letters, including a man who testified that the singer told him what to write “word for word.”

The material, known as “collateral,” makes it difficult for victims to escape, said Dawn M. Hughes, a clinical and forensic psychologist who provided expert testimony for the prosecution. (She also testified as an expert at the trial of Keith Raniere, the Nxivm cult leader, who also relied on such collateral to intimidate women he was abusing.)

Creating collateral keeps adolescents “captive,” she said, and creates a power dynamic she likened to “slowly sucking the oxygen out of the room and once you realize it, you can’t get out.”

Alexandra E. PetriEmily Palmer
Sept. 27, 2021, 5:36 p.m. ET

Gloria Allred, lawyer for survivors, says ‘justice has been done.’

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‘Justice Has Been Done,’ Allred Says

Gloria Allred, the famed women’s rights attorney who represented several of R. Kelly’s victims, said Mr. Kelly was the worst of all the sexual predators she had pursued in her career.

I have pursued many sexual predators who have committed crimes against women and children. Of all the predators that I have pursued, however, Mr. Kelly is the worst, for many reasons. First, he used the power of his celebrity to recruit vulnerable, underage girls for the purpose of sexually abusing them. These were not May- October relationships, which is what his defense attorney wanted the jury to believe. These were crimes against children and some adults. Second, he used the power of his business enterprise, and many of his inner circle employees, to assist him and enable him in his plan and his scheme to lure his victims to him, isolate them, intimidate them, control them, indoctrinate them, punish them, shame them and humiliate them. R. Kelly’s victims handled themselves with dignity and survived intense cross-examination by the defense. Because of their courage and the outstanding work of federal agents and prosecutors in this case, justice has been done. Let this be a message to other celebrities who also use their fame to prey on their fans and others who are unfortunate enough to come into contact with them. You’re also likely to face serious consequences for your criminal conduct. The issue is not if the law will catch up to you. The only question is when.

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Gloria Allred, the famed women’s rights attorney who represented several of R. Kelly’s victims, said Mr. Kelly was the worst of all the sexual predators she had pursued in her career.CreditCredit...Stephanie Keith for The New York Times

Shortly after a jury found R. Kelly guilty of a decades-long scheme to recruit women and teenage girls for sex, Gloria Allred, a women’s rights attorney who represented several of the singer’s accusers, stood outside the federal courthouse in Brooklyn and declared “justice has been done.”

Ms. Allred has often represented women who have been victims of sexual harassment and sexual assault by powerful men — including in the case against the movie producer Harvey Weinstein. But she said that “of all the predators that I have pursued, Mr. Kelly is the worst.”

Mr. Kelly used his celebrity to manipulate and sexually abuse underage girls, Ms. Allred said, and had used a network of enablers to help build and sustain that world of torment and abuse. Mr. Kelly also knowingly spread herpes to his victims, she said.

Ms. Allred represented three of the six victims whose accounts were at the center of the case, as well as two other key witnesses in the trial. She also represented a third who in the end was not called to testify.

“Let this be a message to other celebrities who also use their fame to prey on their fans,” Ms. Allred said. “The issue is not if the law will catch up to you, the only question is when.”

Jacquelyn Kasulis, acting attorney for the Eastern District of New York, also spoke at the news conference, applauding the verdict and the “bravery and resilience” of survivors whose testimony was central to the case against Mr. Kelly.

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Troy Closson
Sept. 27, 2021, 5:09 p.m. ET

covers criminal justice in New York

Sparkle, the singer who testified that her niece was the underage girl at the center of R. Kelly’s trial in 2008, told me after his conviction that she was feeling a “bevy of emotions” as her voice broke over the phone. “It’s a good day. It’s a sad day. It’s just the fact that my niece and the other young women can now feel a sense of relief — he’s not able to do this to them any longer.”

Troy ClossonRebecca Davis O’Brien
Sept. 27, 2021, 4:54 p.m. ET

Outside the courthouse, R. Kelly’s die-hard fans react to guilty verdict with outrage.

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A supporter reacted after R. Kelly was found guilty Monday.Credit...Stephanie Keith for The New York Times

Outside the federal courthouse in Brooklyn, a small group of R. Kelly supporters greeted Monday’s guilty verdict with outrage, citing unproven claims of a biased prosecution.

“We are not giving up,” one woman shouted into a megaphone, as Mr. Kelly’s lawyers left the courthouse Monday afternoon. “Free Robert Sylvester Kelly.”

“This is a racist country,” another said. (Mr. Kelly, like many of the women and men who testified against him, is Black.)

As dozens of accusations against R. Kelly spilled over into public view in recent years, Mr. Kelly’s reputation has deteriorated. But a steadfast group of supporters maintains that he is innocent, with some attending each day of his racketeering trial in New York.

The group remained relatively small throughout the six-week trial, and often gathered outside the courthouse before the day’s proceedings began. Some crafted chalk art including the words “Free R. Kelly” on a nearby sidewalk. Others waited in line to be among the first to enter the building when it opened.

During breaks, the fervent group often streamed the singer’s music on a loudspeaker in a park across the street from the courthouse. Some spoke with followers on social media live-streams and offered updates on the day’s testimony.

And when the days ended, many cheered and shook hands with Mr. Kelly’s defense lawyers while jeering federal prosecutors as they left the building.

Much of Mr. Kelly’s current fan base lives in and around Chicago, his hometown, where he once was seen as a success story, someone who overcame a low-income upbringing filled with struggles. Several of the supporters who have attended the New York trial flew from Illinois to follow the case.

A handful of supporters claimed seats each day in the back of the courtroom where the public and reporters could watch the proceedings via closed-circuit video. They often reacted out loud to the government’s witnesses and to the counterarguments of Mr. Kelly’s defense lawyers.

At times, it landed them it trouble.

After a prosecutor said that there had been “audible, negative reactions to testimony” and that the father of one accuser had been verbally accosted, Judge Ann M. Donnelly, who presided over the trial, warned visitors that they would lose access to the courthouse if they did not “behave.”

Emily Palmer contributed reporting.

Troy Closson
Sept. 27, 2021, 4:44 p.m. ET

covers criminal justice in New York

The “Surviving R. Kelly” documentary on Lifetime was key to bringing awareness to the charges against the singer. After the verdict, Dream Hampton, the production’s executive producer, said on Twitter that she was “grateful to the survivors. The ones who talked and the ones who didn’t.”

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Alexandra E. Petri
Sept. 27, 2021, 4:28 p.m. ET

The ‘Surviving R. Kelly’ documentary catalyzed the case against the singer.

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The creators of the “Surviving R. Kelly” documentary spoke on stage at a screening in 2019. The documentary focused attention on the accusations against Mr. Kelly.Credit...Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images for Lifetime

R. Kelly’s trial has taken place behind closed doors, away from the press and the public. But even before his trial and conviction on Monday, the country had already heard the searing allegations of sexual, emotional and physical abuse leveled against the singer.

A 2019 Lifetime documentary series, “Surviving R. Kelly,” featured six hourlong episodes that included the stories of some of the women who said they were abused and manipulated by Mr. Kelly, often when they were underage.

“It makes a difference when there are cameras involved, and when people can actually see these women telling their stories and feel it,” said Dream Hampton, an executive producer of the documentary.

The trail of allegations against Mr. Kelly was first examined through reporting that first emerged in the early 2000s by Jim DeRogatis, a music critic at The Chicago-Sun Times. And in 2008, Mr. Kelly was tried and acquitted in a criminal court in Chicago in a high-profile child pornography case. Years later, Mr. DeRogatis went on to publish several more damning and widely shared articles.

But it was the documentary — emerging amid the broader Me Too movement’s reckoning over sexual abuse by powerful men — that finally derailed Mr. Kelly’s career.

The series was followed by criminal charges against the singer in Minnesota, Illinois and New York at the federal and state levels. RCA, Mr. Kelly’s record label, and its parent company Sony Music Entertainment cut him loose.

On Monday, Mr. Kelly was convicted on all charges. When he is sentenced in May, he faces life in prison.

But the case does not stop when a verdict is reached, Ms. Hampton said.

“Peer accountability really is the true end here,” Ms. Hampton said.

Ben Sisario
Sept. 27, 2021, 4:19 p.m. ET

covers the music industry

R. Kelly’s trial could become music’s #MeToo moment.

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Protesters gathered outside Sony headquarters in New York in 2019. The record label dropped R. Kelly from its roster. Credit...Richard Drew/Associated Press

When the #MeToo movement began sweeping through Hollywood, politics and the business world in 2017, people in the music industry — where unsupervised contact between male stars and young female fans is so common as to be mythologized — wondered when accountability would reach their shores.

The music business has indeed had its share of scandals in recent years. The singers Marilyn Manson and Ryan Adams, and the hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons, have been accused of various kinds of misconduct.

But the criminal trial of R. Kelly, which ended with his conviction on Monday, has been by far the most high profile #MeToo moment in music. To a great degree, that is a result of the serious nature of the charges that federal prosecutors brought against him, and of the fact that Mr. Kelly was accused of engaging in sex acts with women and girls as young as 13 or 14.

But similar accusations against Mr. Kelly have been public for decades, publicized through reporting in The Chicago Sun-Times in the early 2000s and at a child pornography trial in 2008, where he was acquitted. For years, Mr. Kelly remained signed to a major record label, where he sold millions of albums and maintained his status as a top-level hitmaker. Stars like Lady Gaga, Jay-Z, Usher and Chance the Rapper worked with him; in 2013, he performed at the Pitchfork Festival in Chicago, a home for hipster-approved indie rock.

That Mr. Kelly avoided banishment from the music world for so long — and, indeed, that he was embraced by that world — has been seen as a stain against the industry. It was only in 2017 that public opinion began to turn decisively against Mr. Kelly. That was when BuzzFeed News began to publish a series of investigative reports by Jim DeRogatis, a journalist who had chronicled the accusations against Mr. Kelly at The Sun-Times years before.

In early 2019, after the broadcast of the documentary “Surviving R. Kelly,” featuring stomach-turning firsthand accounts by numerous women, Mr. Kelly was finally dropped by RCA, his label. By then, Mr. Kelly had not had a hit in a number of years.

Today, Mr. Kelly has been largely shunned by the music industry at large; Lady Gaga, for example, apologized for working with him and removed the track they recorded together in 2013. But Mr. Kelly’s catalog is still available on streaming services. Its popularity there — on Spotify, his music draws 5.2 million listeners each month — suggests a fan base that has never left.

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Troy Closson
Sept. 27, 2021, 4:15 p.m. ET

covers criminal justice in New York

Jerhonda Pace, the first accuser to testify against R. Kelly at the trial, was one of the earliest women to go public with her accusations in 2017. On Monday, she reacted with a simple message on Instagram, writing “Verdict? GUILTY.”

Jonah Bromwich
Sept. 27, 2021, 4:13 p.m. ET

covers the courts in New York

Racketeering cases against individual defendants are rare. This racketeering charge against R. Kelly required prosecutors to prove that the singer was the leader of an ongoing criminal enterprise involving multiple enablers, even though he was the sole defendant on trial.

Rebecca Davis O’Brien
Sept. 27, 2021, 4:09 p.m. ET

reporting from the courthouse

R. Kelly’s lawyer says the case was ‘replete with inconsistencies.’

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R. Kelly ‘Disappointed’ by the Verdict, His Lawyer Says

Deveraux L. Cannick, R. Kelly’s lawyer, said the defense team would appeal the singer’s guilty verdict after he was found guilty of racketeering and 8 counts of sex trafficking.

“Of course, Mr. Kelly is disappointed. He was not anticipating this verdict because based on the evidence, why should he anticipate this verdict? When you go with the discovery, you saw witness after witnesses giving three, four, five different versions as to what they said happened here. The government cherry-picked the version that they thought would be a continuation of the narrative that was first put out by Cheryl Mack and ‘Surviving R. Kelly,’ and they cherry-picked a version and ran with that version. They totally ignore the inconsistencies that all of these witnesses gave in their debriefing. They try, and I guess they successfully did it, was to massage it. But it’s a situation we are in. I didn’t know if I’m more disappointed in the jurors’ verdict or the government’s action in this case. Thank you very much.” “Reporter: What did your client say to you as soon as the verdict was read?” “I’m sure. I’m sure we’ll be appealing.”

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Deveraux L. Cannick, R. Kelly’s lawyer, said the defense team would appeal the singer’s guilty verdict after he was found guilty of racketeering and 8 counts of sex trafficking.CreditCredit...Stephanie Keith for The New York Times

As he left the courtroom, R. Kelly’s lawyer said the defense team would consider appealing the verdict that could send his star client to prison for life.

“Of course we are disappointed in the verdict,” the lawyer, Deveraux L. Cannick, said as he walked through the courthouse. “I am even more disappointed in the prosecution for bringing this case,” he said, adding that it was “replete with inconsistencies.”

But jurors found the witnesses credible, and convicted Mr. Kelly on all charges.

Asked if Mr. Kelly was prepared for the conviction, Mr. Cannick said: “I don’t think anybody is ever prepared for an outcome like this.”

Mr. Cannick stepped outside the courthouse, where dozens of reporters and camera crews had been stationed all day in anticipation of a verdict. He and other members of the defense team strode past the microphones set up for a news conference and into the adjacent park, where he was quickly ambushed by cameras and microphones.

Speaking as he walked, Mr. Cannick told the cameras that “witness after witness had given three, four, five different versions” of their stories.

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Troy Closson
Sept. 27, 2021, 4:07 p.m. ET

covers criminal justice in New York

One important takeaway from the verdict: What it could mean to the family of the singer Aaliyah, who died in 2001. Jurors found R. Kelly responsible for the bribe of a government employee that allowed him to marry Aaliyah in 1994 when she was 15.

Troy Closson
Sept. 27, 2021, 4:03 p.m. ET

covers criminal justice in New York

Jacquelyn M. Kasulis, the acting U.S. attorney in Brooklyn, thanked the 11 men and women who accused R. Kelly of misconduct at the trial: “No one deserves what they experienced at his hands or the threats and harassment they faced in telling the truth about what happened to them. We hope that today’s verdict brings some measure of comfort and closure.”

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Credit...Stephanie Keith for The New York Times
Rebecca Davis O'Brien
Sept. 27, 2021, 3:59 p.m. ET

reporting from the courthouse

A handful of reporters were allowed into the actual courtroom for the verdict, and we were able to see the jury and R. Kelly’s reaction. The only motion I could detect from Mr. Kelly was the occasional clench of his jaw; his eyes seemed to be looking straight ahead at the table. At the end, he stood and buttoned his suit as the jury filed out through a side door.

Troy Closson
Sept. 27, 2021, 3:57 p.m. ET

covers criminal justice in New York

A woman who testified against R. Kelly in 2008 called the trial ‘a big relief.’

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The singer Sparkle testified at R. Kelly’s first criminal trial that he had filmed a sex tape with her teenage niece.Credit...Whitten Sabbatini for The New York Times

The singer Sparkle was hopeful that R. Kelly could elevate her 12-year-old niece, an aspiring rapper, to success when she introduced the girl and other family members to the R&B star.

But years later, she would testify at Mr. Kelly’s first criminal trial that a sex tape at the center of the case showed Mr. Kelly having sex with and urinating on her teenage niece.

It was not enough for jurors, and the singer was acquitted of child pornography charges in 2008.

On Monday, she said she was feeling “a bevy of emotions” after Mr. Kelly was finally found guilty of sex-trafficking and racketeering charges on Monday, 20 years after she was first approached by a lawyer over the sex tape involving her niece.

“It’s a good day. It’s a sad day,” she said, her voice breaking. “It’s just the fact that my niece and the other young women can now feel a sense of relief — he’s not able to do this to them any longer.”

In an earlier interview in the days before the singer’s conviction, she described the case as “a big relief” and an enormous “release” of the regrets, hardships and frustrations she has held for decades.

“I have been carrying this since 2001,” Sparkle, whose real name is Stephanie Edwards, said in an interview in the days before the verdict arrived. “Finally, I can have some sense of normal — whatever normal looks like on the other end of this.”

She added: “This was really something that I took and put on my shoulders. I’m needing massages every other day, because this thing has been heavy.”

Sparkle was once R. Kelly’s protégée, providing backup vocals for Aaliyah’s debut album and releasing her own first album in 1998. The two records were both produced by Mr. Kelly, and hers went gold.

When Sparkle testified at Mr. Kelly’s first trial, her sister — the mother of her niece — maintained that the teenager in the sex tape was not her daughter. Her testimony fractured the family and her promising music career never fully recovered after the trial.

In its aftermath, Sparkle said her relationships with family members briefly recovered, before further deteriorating after she participated in the “Surviving R. Kelly” documentary.

“I don’t want to say happy because it’s not really a happy moment,” Sparkle said. “You just can’t even understand what my family has gone through.”

She added: “I don’t know that it will ever be the same.”

She said it was “mind-boggling” that the singer’s abuses spanned more than three decades, and emphasized that those around Mr. Kelly who allowed his behavior to continue were also to blame. “They helped this man do all of this stuff to these young girls,” she said. “Shame on them.”

Her niece, now a woman in her 30s, has cooperated with federal prosecutors in Chicago in recent years in their own case against the singer. Sparkle said she was not sure how she had been processing the singer’s current trial.

“But I hope she’s able to live a little bit more,” Sparkle said. “Even if she gets recognized, to not have such a backlash. I’m just hopeful that it’s all over.”

She added: “I wish and I pray that moving forward that Black women are listened to.”

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Troy Closson
Sept. 27, 2021, 3:49 p.m. ET

covers criminal justice in New York

Outside the courthouse, Gloria Allred, a lawyer for several of R. Kelly's accusers, praised the verdict and addressed the three decades of accusations it took for Mr. Kelly to be convicted: “We understand that justice moves at a glacial pace.”

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Credit...Stephanie Keith for The New York Times
Ben Sisario
Sept. 27, 2021, 3:47 p.m. ET

covers the music industry

By accusing R. Kelly of running a criminal enterprise, prosecutors focused on his entourage — the managers, handlers and assorted employees who have helped him procure young women and avoid consequences. The sad truth is that this is not uncommon in the music world. One question is whether Mr. Kelly’s conviction will change that.

Troy Closson
Sept. 27, 2021, 3:46 p.m. ET

covers criminal justice in New York

A major question now: What happens to the other criminal cases against R. Kelly? He faces another federal case in Chicago — which could tack on decades to a prison term — along with state sex crime charges in Illinois and Minnesota.

Rebecca Davis O'Brien
Sept. 27, 2021, 3:44 p.m. ET

reporting from the courthouse

R. Kelly’s lawyers left the courthouse and were thronged by reporters and cameras. They were trailed by a few supporters of Mr. Kelly’s, one of whom spoke into a megaphone: “We are not giving up! No Justice!”

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Credit...Stephanie Keith for The New York Times

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Emily Palmer
Sept. 27, 2021, 3:42 p.m. ET

reporting from the courthouse

Dressed in a blue suit and white mask, R. Kelly listened with his head down, eyes cast down. The jury looked up at the judge between each announcement of "guilty." When defense asked for a poll, each juror responded with a variety of "yes." Not a single one hesitated.

Jonah Bromwich
Sept. 27, 2021, 3:38 p.m. ET

covers the courts in New York

The guilty verdict came swiftly, particularly given the complexity of the case against R. Kelly and the lengthy trial.

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Credit...Stephanie Keith for The New York Times
Troy Closson
Sept. 27, 2021, 3:37 p.m. ET

covers criminal justice in New York

R. Kelly’s sentencing hearing is scheduled for May 4, 2022. He could spend the rest of his life in prison, representing a remarkable downfall for the singer who once stood atop the world of R&B.

Troy Closson
Sept. 27, 2021, 3:36 p.m. ET

covers criminal justice in New York

Five takeaways from the R. Kelly guilty verdict.

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Jerhonda Pace, left, became the first accuser to ever testify against R. Kelly when she took the stand in August. Credit...Ashlee Rezin/Chicago Sun-Times, via Associated Press

The singer R. Kelly could spend decades in prison after a jury convicted him of racketeering and eight violations of an anti-sex-trafficking law.

Here are a few takeaways from the verdict:

1. Prosecutors built a much stronger case than in 2008.

The government presented a sweeping case that featured 11 accusers, nine women and two men. Many of their accounts were bolstered by evidence, and the allegations spanned decades.

It gave jurors a low chance of reaching a full acquittal in the trial, legal experts said. When Mr. Kelly was acquitted of state child pornography charges in Chicago in 2008, jurors said that the absence of testimony from the girl at the center of the case spurred doubts.

2. An unusual approach to the accusations against Mr. Kelly proved successful.

Racketeering cases are often used against mob organizations. So when the charge was employed against Mr. Kelly, some legal experts viewed it as a potentially precarious approach: Would jurors believe that employees who promoted a music business also served as the henchmen of a criminal enterprise at the singer’s command?

Ultimately, they did. And some experts on sexual abuse saw value in placing the enablers around a powerful man at the center of his trial.

3. The jurors accepted the accounts of the government’s first main accuser, Jerhonda Pace.

Ms. Pace, who was one of the earliest women to go public with her accusations in a 2017 BuzzFeed article, told jurors that Mr. Kelly had begun having sex with her in 2009, when she was 16. She said he once choked her until she passed out after she disobeyed one of his rules, and then forced her to perform a sex act on him.

The singer’s defense team attempted to depict her as “a super-stalker,” “a super-hustler,” and “a groupie extraordinaire.” But jurors apparently disagreed, and found that prosecutors proved all three underlying accusations in the racketeering charge that pertained to Ms. Pace.

After the jury’s decision was announced, Ms. Pace posted a message on Instagram: “Verdict? GUILTY.”

4. A woman who spoke publicly for the first time was believed.

One of the six women at the center of Mr. Kelly’s trial had never spoken publicly about their accusations: Stephanie, who took the stand using only her first name. Her encounters with Mr. Kelly occurred in the late 1990s, and Mr. Kelly’s defense lawyers questioned why they did not come forward sooner.

But judging from the verdict, jurors believed her account. She testified that Mr. Kelly began sexually abusing her when she was 17.

5. One accuser initially defended Mr. Kelly after he faced legal troubles. But jurors saw her as his victim.

One woman, who testified under a pseudonym, initially had come to his defense in a television interview in 2019. Mr. Kelly’s lawyers spent more time cross-examining her than any other witness and homed in on discrepancies in her accounts over time.

But ultimately her testimony — which included some of the most graphic accusations against Mr. Kelly — appeared to be largely believed, with jurors finding Mr. Kelly guilty of all four counts related to her.

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Ben Sisario
Sept. 27, 2021, 3:32 p.m. ET

covers the music industry

With R. Kelly found guilty, the big question for the music industry is whether his music will now be removed from major digital platforms like Spotify and Apple Music. Although most digital outlets have policies barring hate speech, they tend to take a hands-off approach when it comes to removing material, seeing themselves as neutral platforms and not censors.

Ben Sisario
Sept. 27, 2021, 3:32 p.m. ET

Depending on your view of tech companies, that decision can be high-minded and principled, or just a way to avoid the slippery slope of policing their platforms. Even when Spotify instituted a “hateful conduct” policy in 2018, they did not delete the artists’s songs. The policy came under fire as arbitrary, and disproportionately affecting Black artists, and was rescinded after a few weeks.

Joe Coscarelli
Sept. 27, 2021, 3:27 p.m. ET

covers pop music

Major figures in music — including A-list R. Kelly collaborators like Jay-Z, Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber and Chance the Rapper — have been largely mum about the trial. I’m eager to see how that calculus changes now that there’s a guilty verdict.

Troy Closson
Sept. 27, 2021, 3:26 p.m. ET

covers criminal justice in New York

R. Kelly’s conviction represents a major #MeToo moment for Black women.

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Demonstrators gathered near the studio of the singer R. Kelly to call for a boycott of his music in 2019.Credit...Scott Olson/Getty Images

When the #MeToo movement erupted years ago, scores of women spoke out against the powerful men, igniting a national reckoning over sexual abuse and harassment.

But as cases of high-profile men like the Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein put a spotlight on the accusations of white women, Black women often said they felt left out of the conversation.

For many, R. Kelly’s case and conviction offered the sense that the movement could serve them, too, giving them a chance to hold men accountable.

“This is culmination of the movement of so many women who having being trying so long to have their voices heard,” said Oronike Odeleye, the co-founder of the #MuteRKelly campaign. “We have never had full ownership of our bodies. And we’re at a moment where Black women are no longer accepting that as the price of being Black and female in America.”

The activist Tarana Burke started the original iteration of “Me Too” around 2007, using the phrase to raise awareness of sexual assault and connect victims to resources. But when the actress Alyssa Milano tweeted the words “me too” a decade later, initially without crediting Ms. Burke, some observers worried that Black women had been left out of the story and noted that Ms. Burke’s initial effort had not been supported by prominent white feminists.

Now, the jurors’ acceptance of the stories of Mr. Kelly’s accusers holds a deep significance, several experts say, particularly because Black women and girls have historically seen their accusations dismissed more often than others.

“When you have girls who aren’t famous, they’re not stars in their own right — and they’re Black — it becomes so easy for people to overlook their suffering and to cast it aside so the status quo can be preserved,” said Deborah Tuerkheimer, a professor of law at Northwestern University and former assistant district attorney in Manhattan.

Whitney Davis, 34, said she has followed other major #MeToo cases. But Mr. Kelly’s trial carried a distinct resonance for a confluence of a reasons, she said: The accusers at the heart of the case looked like her, and she had herself endured sexual abuse in childhood.

“To be honest, this was the first case that was predominantly Black girls, Black women, Black boys — and so it was intriguing to me to see if they would get justice,” said Ms. Davis, who is from Dallas. “To see justice for them, oh, my God, it will in a way mean justice for myself.”

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Joe Coscarelli
Sept. 27, 2021, 3:23 p.m. ET

covers pop music

This is by far the highest-profile, post-Me Too conviction involving sexual abuse that we’ve seen in the music industry. Its impact — and the fact that the prosecution secured a guilty verdict across the board — is only heightened by the fact of R. Kelly’s first acquittal on child pornography charges in 2008 allowed for his career to keep flourishing in the years that followed.

Troy Closson
Sept. 27, 2021, 3:21 p.m. ET

covers criminal justice in New York

R. Kelly sat motionless in the courtroom as he was found guilty of all nine counts of the racketeering and sex-trafficking charges against him. His facial expression was hidden by a mask.

Jonah Bromwich
Sept. 27, 2021, 3:13 p.m. ET

covers the courts in New York

Relatively brief deliberations in a complex case can like this often indicate that the jury was fairly united in reaction to the trial.

Troy Closson
Sept. 27, 2021, 3:12 p.m. ET

covers criminal justice in New York

R. Kelly Is Convicted of All Counts After Decades of Accusations of Abuse

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R. Kelly Found Guilty on All Counts

The singer was convicted of federal racketeering and sex trafficking charges for a decades-long scheme to recruit women and underage girls for sex. Once one of the biggest names in popular music, he could face decades in prison.

“Today’s guilty verdict forever brands R. Kelly as a predator who used his fame and fortune to prey on the young, the vulnerable and the voiceless.” “Mr. Kelly is a prolific serial predator. Despite numerous reports of his destructive abuse over the years, Mr. Kelly’s brazen acts of intimidation against his accusers kept him shielded from prosecution.” “Kelly, after grooming, isolating and intimidating his child victims, recorded them being sexually abused and humiliated by him. He directed these videos and produced them, not only for his own sexual gratification, but in some instances for the purpose of using these videos to silence and threaten his victims with public exposure of these tapes if they ever revealed what he had done to them.” “Of course, Mr. Kelly is disappointed. He was not anticipating this verdict because based on the evidence, why should he anticipate this verdict? I’m sure — I’m sure we’ll be appealing.”

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The singer was convicted of federal racketeering and sex trafficking charges for a decades-long scheme to recruit women and underage girls for sex. Once one of the biggest names in popular music, he could face decades in prison.CreditCredit...Tannen Maury/EPA, via Shutterstock

R. Kelly, the multiplatinum R&B artist whose musical legacy became intertwined with dozens of accusations of sexual abuse, was found guilty on Monday of serving as the ringleader of a decades-long scheme to recruit women and underage girls for sex.

The jury in New York deliberated for about nine hours before convicting the singer of all nine counts against him, including racketeering and eight violations of an anti-sex trafficking law known as the Mann Act.

The decision represents the first criminal punishment against Mr. Kelly despite a trail of allegations of misconduct that extends for more than a quarter-century. His six-week trial exposed a harrowing system of trauma and abuse, commanded by the singer and enabled by his associates.

Mr. Kelly, 54, once one of the biggest names in popular music, now faces the possibility of life in prison, capping a remarkable reversal of fortune. As the verdict was read, he sat motionless in the courtroom, wearing a navy blue suit and glasses, with his facial expression hidden behind a mask.

To many observers, Mr. Kelly’s case represented a critical test of the inclusivity of the Me Too movement, which seeks to hold influential and powerful men accountable for sexual misbehavior. Never before in a high-profile Me Too-era trial had the large majority of the accusers been Black women.

Jacquelyn M. Kasulis, the acting U.S. attorney in Brooklyn, told reporters that the verdict sent a powerful message to men like Mr. Kelly.

She thanked the 11 men and women who accused him of misconduct at the trial.

“No one deserves what they experienced at his hands or the threats and harassment they faced in telling the truth about what happened to them. We hope that today’s verdict brings some measure of comfort and closure,” Ms. Kasulis said.

As he left the courtroom on Monday, one of Mr. Kelly’s lawyers said his defense team would consider an appeal.

“Of course we are disappointed in the verdict,” the lawyer, Deveraux L. Cannick, said as he walked through the courthouse. “I am even more disappointed in the prosecution for bringing this case,” he said, adding that it was “replete with inconsistencies.”

Mr. Kelly once stood atop the realm of R&B music, catapulting himself into an international sensation in the 1990s and 2000s on the success of hits like “I Believe I Can Fly.”

But as the Me Too movement continued to gain steam, cracks in his armor began to show, as new women and their families came forward, a protest campaign was waged to boycott his music and a jarring documentary delved into the accusations around him. The image he once crafted as an alluring sex symbol and genre-redefining lyricist collapsed in the public eye.

The trial marked a significant milestone, as women and men took the stand against the singer to accuse Mr. Kelly of sexual abuse for the first time, including several who had never shared their accounts publicly.

On Monday, several women who said Mr. Kelly had abused them praised his conviction as a decades-in-the-making rebuke of the singer and a meaningful validation of the stories of his victims.

“Today, my voice was heard,” Jerhonda Pace wrote on Instagram. Ms. Pace became the first accuser to ever testify against Mr. Kelly at a criminal trial when she took the stand last month.

Oronike Odeleye, the co-founder of the #MuteRKelly campaign, said the conviction was the result of accusations that took years to be heard.

“This is the culmination of the movement of so many women who have been trying so long to have their voices heard,” Ms. Odeleye said. “We have never had full ownership of our bodies. And we’re at a moment where Black women are no longer accepting that as the price of being Black and female in America.”

The verdict came after the government constructed a sweeping case against Mr. Kelly, with evidence that extended from recent years back to the early 1990s.

Federal prosecutors chronicled a dark journey in the career of the singer, whose real name is Robert Sylvester Kelly. He was embraced as a hometown success story in Chicago as he overcame a low-income upbringing filled with struggles.

But his eminence assured him he was untouchable, prosecutors said, and as he gained immense access to young fans, Mr. Kelly became a criminal mastermind who used a universe of enablers and sycophants in his orbit to ensnare women, girls and boys.

The prosecution called 45 witnesses during the trial, but the criminal charges against the singer hinged on accusations related to six women, five of whom testified (the sixth, the singer Aaliyah, died in a plane crash in 2001).

Four additional women and two men also took the stand as accusers. And though none of their claims were included in the indictment, they helped bolster the government’s arguments, often telling jurors that their encounters with the singer were marred by sexual, physical or emotional abuse from him.

Throughout the proceedings, the result of Mr. Kelly’s only other criminal trial, in 2008, stood in mind for many observers. Prosecutors in Chicago had argued that a videotape showed him having sex with and urinating on an underage girl. But he was acquitted of all 14 counts against him after the girl at the center of the case declined to testify.

The singer’s career flourished afterward with successful record sales and a consistent flow of collaborations with superstars. But in recent years, his musical repertoire was largely expunged from the radio and public spaces, a fate that would likely persist with his conviction.

The government was barred from detailing his previous case. But witnesses depicted an offender who was emboldened by his initial absolution — and whose behavior grew increasingly more brazen and disturbing in the years that followed.

Cheerful fans saluted Mr. Kelly when he was cleared of wrongdoing in his Chicago trial. But only a small band of supporters was gathered outside the Brooklyn courthouse on Monday, where they streamed his music after the verdict was announced.

Mr. Kelly also faces a federal trial in Chicago on child pornography and obstruction charges, and additional state sex crime charges in Illinois and Minneapolis.

Kim Foxx, the top prosecutor in Chicago who announced state sex crime charges against Mr. Kelly in 2019, said the conviction was “monumental” for the Me Too movement and sent a significant message about whose stories mattered.

“It is my hope that through this trial and the toll that it has taken to get to this point, that we recognize that the movement is not at its fullest strength if everyone doesn’t have equal access to justice,” she said.

In New York, the racketeering charge was viewed by some as an unusual and potentially precarious approach. But the statute, which has commonly been used to take down mob organizations, was recently employed successfully against the Nxivm sex cult.

Mr. Kelly’s defense team said that the racketeering charge itself was flawed and unfounded, arguing that he had run nothing more than a successful music business. But the government’s case was expansive.

The charge was built around 14 underlying crimes that he was accused of committing as part of his criminal enterprise; only two of them needed to be proven to convict.

Mr. Kelly declined to testify in his own defense. But his lawyers aimed to cast his accusers as opportunists, liars and obsessive fans, arguing their sex with the singer had been consensual, and their accounts of abuse and misconduct fabricated. They evoked images of him as an altruistic romantic partner who regarded the women around him as family, treated them “like gold” and was blindsided by their allegations.

And they warned that the accounts of his accusers had been too inconsistent over time to believe.

“Getting a conviction of R. Kelly is a big deal,” Mr. Cannick said in his summation, invoking Martin Luther King Jr. in an attempt to argue that if the jurors acquitted Mr. Kelly, they would be demonstrating the sort of courage that defined the civil rights movement. “What’s a bigger deal is a system we can trust.”

But federal prosectors argued that a conviction would demonstrate that even the biggest stars were not untouchable by the law.

“The defendant’s victims aren’t groupies or gold diggers. They’re human beings,” Nadia Shihata, an assistant U.S. attorney, said at the end of the trial. “Daughters, sisters, some are now mothers. And their lives matter.”

The seven men and five women of the jury, whose ages and races were unclear throughout the trial, ultimately sided with their position. The group remained anonymous to the public and to lawyers at both tables in the courtroom.

It featured an enormous pile of evidence, including text messages that showed the real-time worries that some of Mr. Kelly’s employees shared about his treatment of women and several video and audio recordings, some of which appeared to depict the singer violently assaulting a woman and threatening her life.

Still, the focal point of the case was its slate of witnesses, who told jurors the singer’s public persona served to disguise his true intentions.

Among them were friends and family members of the singer’s accusers; eight of his former employees; the minister who presided over his union to Aaliyah; a doctor who treated him for herpes over more than a decade; and a host of investigators involved in his initial arrest in Chicago.

The trial itself represented a peculiar spectacle of the current moment.

It was first scheduled for May 2020. But the pandemic delayed the start date for 15 months. And members of the public and the media were not granted access to the primary courtroom out of safety concerns; they were required to watch the proceedings through closed-circuit video in overflow rooms.

Decades before the trial began, Mr. Kelly’s marriage to Aaliyah in 1994, when she was 15 and he was 27, was among the first revelations to bring substantial public scrutiny to his encounters with underage girls. The racketeering case allowed prosecutors the flexibility to introduce decades-old evidence, including details related to Aaliyah, an R&B prodigy whose full name was Aaliyah Dana Haughton.

One of Mr. Kelly’s former tour managers confirmed a long-rumored tale that he bribed a government employee to get a fake identification for Aaliyah so the wedding could go forward, because Mr. Kelly feared that she was pregnant and that he could be prosecuted for statutory rape.

Another woman, Stephanie, told jurors that the singer began sexually abusing her when she was 17, after he told her that he liked “young girls” and that he did not understand why society viewed that as a problem.

And a cascade of witnesses described a repressive system of restrictions that the women and girls around Mr. Kelly were forced to abide by — from a directive to address him as “Daddy” to requirements to obtain his permission to eat or use the bathroom.

They said that when the rules were broken, the singer doled out harsh and startling punishments, from skin-tearing spankings to forcing one woman to smear feces on her face and eat it.

Mr. Cannick, the lawyer for Mr. Kelly, argued that the accounts were works of fiction and argued to jurors that the verdict carried deep implications for broader ideals of justice and fairness.

But Elizabeth Geddes, an assistant U.S. attorney, told the panel that their decision would serve to hold the fallen superstar accountable for the decades of pain and torment he inflicted.

“For many years, what happened in the defendant’s world stayed in the defendant’s world,” Ms. Geddes said in her closing argument. “But no longer.”

Emily Palmer and Rebecca Davis O’Brien contributed reporting.

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Precious Fondren
Sept. 27, 2021, 3:11 p.m. ET

After decades of accusations, R. Kelly’s music is rarely heard on the radio now.

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R. Kelly’s music career thrived for years, even as the accusations against him mounted.Credit...Frank Micelotta/Invision, via Associated Press

For two decades R. Kelly has been at the center of accusations that he sexually abused underage girls and young women. But for most of that time, the accusations were not enough to derail his music career.

Only in recent years, as Mr. Kelly has faced criminal charges in Illinois, Minnesota and New York, where he was found guilty on Monday of all counts, has a movement to boycott his songs, known as the #MuteRKelly campaign, taken hold.

Before then, Mr. Kelly’s career thrived, even as the accusations against him became widely known. Even before 2000, when The Chicago Sun-Times published the first major investigation into allegations of abuse by Mr. Kelly, he had settled lawsuits accusing him of having sex with underage girls; in 1994, at 27, he had married Aaliyah, who was 15 years old, allegedly using forged documents. Then in 2002, Mr. Kelly was indicted on child pornography charges after a video surfaced that authorities said showed the singer having sex with a teenage girl.

But Mr. Kelly continued to have success before, during and after the controversies, releasing 12 platinum albums in all. His fame was built on massive hits like “I Believe I Can Fly” in 1996 and “Ignition” in 2002. He collaborated with Jay-Z on two albums in 2002 and 2004. He was the featured artist on Lady Gaga’s single “Do What You Want” in 2013. And he was one of two featured artists on Chance the Rapper’s song “Somewhere in Paradise” in 2015.

After his acquittal of child pornography charges in 2008, it seemed as though Mr. Kelly’s career was impenetrable to criticism.

The tables began to turn in 2017 when grass roots campaign emerged aimed at stopping his music from being played on radio stations, streaming services, and at concert venues. Oronike Odeleye, a co-founder of the movement, said she started it “out of a feeling of outrage.”

“This is about child sexual abuse and trauma that was inflicted on some of these women for years and years and years,” Oronike Odeleye told The Times.

Mr. Kelly’s record label dropped him in 2019, after the broadcast of “Surviving R. Kelly,” a documentary with firsthand accounts from women who said he had sexually abused them. Tour dates have been canceled, and Mr. Kelly has been in custody. And while he still garners 5.2 million listeners monthly on Spotify, it is unusual to hear his music played on the radio or in public.

Amid the controversy and trial, fans of Drake were outraged to learn that Mr. Kelly had gained a writing credit on the Canadian rapper’s album “Certified Lover Boy.”

The backlash to Mr. Kelly’s role was so swift that Drake’s longtime producer, Noah Shebib, issued an explanation on Instagram: One of Mr. Kelly’s songs was playing, barely audibly, in the background of another clip in the song.

“We were forced to license it,” Mr. Shebib wrote. “Doesn’t sit well with me let me just say that.”

Emily Palmer
Sept. 27, 2021, 3:02 p.m. ET

reporting from the courthouse

Who is Ann Donnelly, the judge in the R. Kelly case?

The judge presiding over R. Kelly’s trial is best known for blocking former President Donald J. Trump’s executive order that barred refugees from entering the country in 2017. Judge Ann M. Donnelly ruled that the president’s order, which led to the detention of green card holders and other immigrants, would cause “irreparable harm” to the people displaced.

Before assuming her post in Brooklyn Federal Court, Judge Donnelly worked as a lawyer in the New York County District Attorney’s Office for 25 years, in roles including senior trial counsel, chief of the Family Violence and Child Abuse Bureau, and a post in a bureau that specialized in dealing with repeat offenders and violent felons.

In 2005 she won a conviction as lead prosecutor in a case finding Tyco chief executive L. Dennis Kozlowski guilty of looting almost $100 million from his company.

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Judge Ann M. Donnelly 

Four years later, she assumed her first judgeship in the New York Court of Claims and later moved on to several county supreme courts across New York City. Former President Barack Obama nominated Judge Donnelly to her current post in 2015.

Over the past six weeks, Judge Donnelly has presided over strange occurrences during Mr. Kelly’s trial, including a witness who tried to wriggle out of testifying despite a court order granting him immunity. After one of Mr. Kelly’s defense lawyers dwelled on the topic of “twerking,” Judge Donnelly reprimanded him in a sidebar away from jurors.

“You need to get yourself here into 2021 with the rest of us, OK?” she said.

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