R Kelly sexual abuse trial: Woman says R&B singer 'knew I was underage'; defence refutes claims and call her 'groupie'

A woman told R Kelly’s trial Thursday that the disgraced R&B star choked her until she passed out during a six-month sexual relationship they had when she was a teenager. Jerhonda Pace, now 28, wept as she read aloud from a journal entry describing how Kelly slapped her, saying “If I lied to him again, it’s not going to be an open hand next time.” “He choked me during an argument” before she had sex with him, wrote the then 16-year-old Pace, who said that after having sex with Kelly for the last time she “became fed up, and I went home and confessed.” Pace, who is pregnant and only a few days from her due date, asked for a break so she could compose herself. She resumed her testimony in Brooklyn federal court a day after telling jurors she was a 16-year-old virgin and a member of Kelly’s fan club when he invited her to his mansion in 2010. While there, she said, she was told to follow “Rob’s rules” — edicts restricting how she could dress, who she could speak with and when she could use the bathroom. She said Kelly — born Robert Sylvester Kelly — sometimes demanded she wear pigtails and “dress like a Girl Scout” during sexual encounters that Kelly often videotaped. On cross-examination, defence attorney Deveraux Cannick sought to show Pace hid her true motivations regarding Kelly and deceived him by lying about her age. “You were in fact stalking him, right?” Cannick asked. “That is not right,” she responded. Pace had testified earlier she told Kelly she was 19 when they met but had informed him she was only 16 by the time he sexually abused her. Cannick confronted her with a lawsuit settlement she signed indicating she agreed she never revealed to Kelly that she was a minor. She said it was in exchange for hush money. The questioning fit a theme that defence lawyers have repeatedly pushed early in the trial: Kelly was victimised by groupies who hounded him at shows and afterward, only to turn against him years later when public sentiment shifted against him, they allege. To bolster their claims against Kelly, prosecutors showed jurors on Thursday screenshots from Pace’s phone showing several communications with Kelly in January 2010, including a text from him reading, “Please call.” There was also a photo of her with “Rob” tattooed to her chest. She said she’s since “covered it up with a black heart.” Pace is among the women who have accused Kelly of spreading herpes to her without disclosing that he had contracted the virus. Kelly’s doctor for 25 years, Kris McGrath, testified Thursday that he prescribed the musician medication to treat symptoms of genital herpes as early as 2007. McGrath — who also socialised with Kelly — said he prescribed the singer herpes medication “so often that I memorized the phone number” of the pharmacy. Kelly, 54, is charged with racketeering, sexual exploitation of a child, kidnapping, bribery, and forced labour between 1994 and 2018. He denies the charges but faces between 10 years and life in prison if convicted on all counts. The trial, expected to last a month, finally got underway in a Brooklyn federal court on Wednesday after a delay of more than a year caused by the coronavirus pandemic. (With inputs from agencies)