R. Kelly Is Found Guilty of Racketeering and 8 Counts of Sex Trafficking

Troy Closson of The New York Times wrote:The singer R. Kelly, who for years dominated the world of R&B music, was found guilty on Monday of being the ringleader of a decades-long scheme to recruit women and underage girls for sex.

After nine hours of deliberations, the jury in the singer’s criminal trial in federal court in Brooklyn convicted him of racketeering and eight violations of an anti-sex trafficking law, after beginning its deliberations Friday afternoon.

The high-profile trial was the first of the Me Too-era where a large majority of the defendant’s accusers were Black women, and the trial was widely seen as a test of the inclusivity of the broader movement to hold powerful men accountable for sexual misconduct.

For Mr. Kelly, the verdict represents the first criminal consequence after decades of murmurs and accusations of sexual abuse and other misbehavior.

Mr. Kelly, 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, while his facial expression hidden behind a mask.

His sentencing hearing is scheduled for May 4.

Mr. Kelly once evaded criminal punishment in 2008 when he was acquitted on 14 counts in a highly publicized child pornography case that loomed over the New York trial in the minds of many observers. But federal prosecutors in Brooklyn built a much stronger case against him this time.

The conviction is likely to further diminish the widespread public image that Mr. Kelly enjoyed through the early 2000s as a charismatic and genre-redefining lyricist. The persona began to collapse in the public eye as his conduct came under new scrutiny at the height of the Me Too movement.

Over the course of the six-week trial, prosecutors described in harrowing detail an ecosystem of torment and abuse, with evidence that extended from recent years as far back as 1991.

Prosecutors called nearly four dozen witnesses who testified about how the singer’s public persona as an infectiously charismatic virtuoso disguised a calculated and controlling predator. The witnesses included nine women and two men who accused Mr. Kelly of abuse or other misconduct, and eight of Mr. Kelly’s former employees.

The singer’s lawyers, homing in on minor changes in aspects of witnesses’ stories over time, sought to convince the jurors that any sexual activity involving him and his accusers was consensual and that the accounts of abuse and misconduct had been fabricated. The defense team tried to portray Mr. Kelly as an altruistic romantic partner who regarded the women around him as family and had been blindsided by their allegations.

But the seven men and five women on the jury ultimately sided with the government.