R. Kelly jury to hear how he illegally married minor Aaliyah during sex trafficking trial

The final preliminary hearing before R. Kelly's federal sex trafficking trial that begins next week presented a laundry list of what will and won't be heard by the jury, including his secret marriage to then-teenage singer Aaliyah .

The broad strokes of the story of Kelly and Aaliyah, who died in a 2001 plane crash, have long been known, though Kelly has never admitted any wrongdoing. They secretly married in 1994, when she was 15 and he was 27 — apparently after she bribed a government official to obtain a fake ID that said she was 18, according to a 55-page motion filed by prosecutors last week. The marriage was soon annulled.

Now, according to the transcript of Tuesday's hearing obtained by USA TODAY, prosecutors will be allowed to present evidence about how Kelly, now 54, allegedly had “sexual contact” with Aaliyah, nicknamed ” Jane Doe #1,” when she was a minor.

In a pretrial motion, prosecutors allege Kelly believed she had become pregnant, so he secretly arranged a marriage to protect himself from possible criminal charges, because a wife cannot be forced to testify against her husband.

“It's clearly relevant and it clearly shows a motive for the number one racketeering statute, so it's admissible,” U.S. District Judge Ann Donnelly ruled.

One of Kelly's lawyers, Nicole Blank Becker, objected that discussing certain aspects of the marital episode before the jury could be “more prejudicial than probative,” the standard for whether evidence is admitted into court. trial. The judge said she would follow established rules on what is admissible.

“Obviously, with all these things, I’m not going to allow hearsay,” she said.

The marriage issue is among a dozen allegations and potential witnesses that prosecutors sought to bring up Tuesday in Kelly's trial, whose jury selection is scheduled to begin Monday in New York's Eastern District in Brooklyn .

During the hearing, Donnelly went through prosecutors' wish list of items they want to present to the jury, such as other alleged cases in which Kelly is accused of sexually or physically abusing people, even though Kelly is not charged with crimes in connection with those cases.

Instead, prosecutors will present them as “other acts” of alleged criminal behavior by Kelly, intended to bolster their case for the crimes he was charged with in July 2019.

The uncharged acts are “directly and inextricably linked to the evidence of the charged crimes,” prosecutors argued in their motion.

The alleged crimes involve six women (two of whom were girls at the time) and include child pornography, kidnapping, obstruction of justice, sex trafficking and racketeering for the sexual exploitation of children.

Prosecutors accuse Kelly of running “a criminal enterprise” consisting of managers, bodyguards and other employees, who allegedly helped Kelly recruit women and underage girls for sexual and pornographic purposes, and pass through the state borders for this purpose.

Kelly has pleaded not guilty to all charges against him.

The accusers in the alleged crimes have not been publicly identified, though Blank Becker has said that Aaliyah is Jane Doe No. 1 in the case and that the prosecution's description of Jane Doe No. 1 matches her.

Accusers who testify will be called only by their first names in court, the judge ruled.

According to the hearing transcript, The Associated Press and Blank Becker, the judge ruled mostly in favor of prosecutors but said some evidence would be excluded because it is too similar to other parts of the case aimed at showing that Kelly engaged in racketeering in pursuit of women and girls he could abuse.

Donnelly said she generally would not allow questions to reveal whether any of the women had received mental health treatment. She added that she would not allow jurors to learn that one witness had worked as an exotic dancer years after she said she was abused.

Also likely to be excluded from the trial is any testimony about religious beliefs or whether some of the women were asked to have sex with each other, the judge said.

Kelly's defense team objected to the prosecution's wish list, complaining that it had been “blindsided” by a motion filed just weeks before the trial began. Blank Becker told USA TODAY that the defense intends to push for “a fair and impartial trial based on the facts.”

“If we don’t hold the government to these standards, what good is the American justice system?” “, she said. “Our job as Mr. Robert Kelly's defense team is to ensure his rights are protected and to fight for the truth. »

Kelly, who was in court Tuesday, has been incarcerated since his indictment, mostly in a federal prison in Chicago. Last month, he was transferred to the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn.

One of his lawyers, Deveraux Cannick, told the judge that Kelly had lost money and gained weight in prison, and needed to take his measurements so he could buy new clothes. He asked that the trial transcripts be provided to him free of charge because Kelly has not been able to work for two years.

“His funds are gone,” Cannick said of his client, who left the courtroom after the hearing with his hands handcuffed.

Kelly is also charged with sex crimes in federal court in Chicago and in state courts in Chicago and Minneapolis. Due to delays due to the pandemic, the New York case was the first to go to trial.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: R. Kelly trial: Jury to hear case of illegal marriage to minor, Aaliyah