R. Kelly’s former tour manager testified on Monday that the 1994 marriage between the Grammy-winning singer and “Princess of R&B” Aaliyah was “wrong.”
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“It shouldn’t have happened. It was wrong,” Demetrius Smith, 65, told jurors in Brooklyn federal court at Kelly’s racketeering and sex crimes trial. “I shouldn’t be talking about Aaliyah, she’s not here.”
Smith, who was forced to testify and granted immunity, told jurors on Friday that he helped Kelly obtain a fake welfare card for the teenage singer so she could marry him in 1994. The fake identification, which did not have a birth date on it, was one of two cards Smith helped the singers illegally obtain so they could get married. At the time, Aaliyah, then 15, had said she thought she was pregnant, he said.
“They were more than friends from the very beginning,” Smith said of the relationship, which began when Aaliyah was in her early teens. “I just thought they were too playful.”
Smith is one of seven witnesses who have testified for the prosecution during the first week of Kelly’s trial, which will last about a month. At least five women are expected to testify about the abuse they endured while involved with Kelly. Smith’s testimony provided rare insight into the lengths Kelly’s inner circle went to protect the singer—even if that meant committing crimes.
“He was like my brother,” Smith said. But the ex-tour manager testified Monday that decades—and a prison sentence—later, he no longer feels inclined to protect Kelly.
Kelly, 54, faces a slew of charges, including racketeering based on kidnapping, sexual exploitation of children, and forced labor. He is also charged with violations of the Mann Act, which prohibits the transport of people across state lines for sex.
Video: R Kelly’s lawyer confirms singer was married to Aaliyah when she was 15 (The Independent)
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The disgraced singer has pleaded not guilty to all charges against him and repeatedly denied any wrongdoing. Throughout the trial, Kelly’s defense team has argued that his accusers all had consensual relationships with the singer and are liars who “have an agenda.”
Smith was at times combative with Judge Ann Donnelly and prosecutors on Friday as he reluctantly described how he flew with Kelly from an Orlando show to Chicago in August 1994, after the singer revealed that Aaliyah is in “trouble, man.” On the plane ride, Smith said Kelly was “concerned” because he was worried about going to jail if the teenage singer was indeed pregnant.
Kelly wanted to “protect himself, to protect Aaliyah,” Smith said Friday, admitting that he warned the singer not to go through with the rushed marriage. “She was too young. He was confused,” he added. Smith insisted he never believed that Aaliyah was actually pregnant.
Prosecutors allege that Kelly bribed an Illinois government employee with $500 to obtain a fake welfare ID. Smith revealed to jurors on Friday that Aaliyah also obtained a fake ID that stated she worked for a courier company in order to obtain the marriage certificate.
The marriage certificate, which was shown to jurors Friday, stated that she was three years older—and thus of legal age to marry the then-27-year-old “I Believe I Can Fly” artist.
The pair were married inside a suite at a Sheraton hotel near the airport—and both were wearing “casual clothing.” About an hour later, Smith said he and Kelly went back to the airport to catch a flight to continue the singer’s tour.
The Cook County Clerk marriage application, certification, and license stated that the pair got married on Aug. 31, 1994, in Rosemont, Illinois. The pair applied for the marriage a day prior, with Kelly using his Illinois state driver’s license and Aaliyah using a Department of Public Aid card.
In February 1996, Aaliyah’s underage marriage to Kelly was annulled by her parents.
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