R. Kelly’s legal team has officially filed an appeal in his federal sexual crimes case in New York as the disgraced R&B singer’s attorneys believe he was wrongfully convicted.
Kells feels the decision to convict him on nine federal counts of RICO charges and sexual misconduct crimes as well as human trafficking in 2021 should be reversed, according to legal documents obtained byTMZon Wednesday (April 19).
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His lawyers claim the judge did not meet the proper “burden of proof” to sentence him to 30 years in prison. R. Kelly also voiced his gripes with the jury selection and the evidence allowed to be used against him in the courtroom, which he says impacted him receiving a fair trial.
They also claim that four jurors had prejudged guilt against Kelly and two shouldn’t have been selected at all since they watched the bombshell Surviving R. Kelly Lifetime docuseries.
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The retorts against the charges also included claims that the alleged groomed women were of age at the time of their relationship with Kelly and some lied about their age so he didn’t know if they were younger than stated.
As far as the evidence goes, Kelly’s team of attorneys led by Jennifer Bonjean believe that information like his bedroom activity, sexual preferences and history of STDs shouldn’t have been allowed in the case.
R. Kelly and his lawyers are seeking at a minimum to have a brand new trial or the conviction be scrapped altogether.
This is all separate from Kelly’s second federal sexual assault case where he was sentenced to 20 years for his crimes by an Illinois judge in February.
A grand jury ultimately found the Chitown native guilty on six of the 13 federal charges which included three child pornography charges for sexually abusing four girls — three of whom were minors.
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They also found Kelly guilty of making three videos of himself sexually assaulting his 14-year-old goddaughter, which resulted in another three charges for producing sex tapes with a minor.
Additionally, the Pied Piper of R&B was ordered to pay one of the victims $42,000 in restitution to take care of their therapy costs.
