June 14, 2008, Robert Kelly shudders a sigh of relief and walks out of a Cook County courthouse a free man, cleared of m…
“The litany of allegations against Kelly, a litany that extends far beyond his one well-publicized trial, aren’t classified, aren’t hidden, many of them are a matters of public record and easily accessed by anyone willing to look for them. So I have looked for them, because the stories of young black women rarely demand our attention, particularly when placed against the stories of rich and powerful men. Here are those stories. .— — — — — — —
- Kelly met Aaliyah when she was 12-years-old and then married her when she was 15, he was 28 at the time. He falsified marriage documents stating that she was 18, the marriage was later annulled and Aaliyah signed an NDA [nondisclosure agreement] preventing her from speaking about Kelly and their relationship. Barry Hankerson, Aaliyah’s uncle and Kelly’s then manager, writes a letter to Kelly’s attorney in an attempt to get Kelly psychiatric help for his “compulsion to pursue underage girls.”
- Tiffany Hawkins sues Kelly, alleging that beginning when she was 15-years-old he repeatedly had group sex with her and other underage girls.
- Patrice Jones sues Kelly, alleging that beginning when she was 16-years-old Kelly had sex with her repeatedly, impregnated her at 17 and then forced her to have an abortion. According to Jones’ lawyer, “That abortion haunts her to this day. She’s under psychological care now. It’s changed her life.”
- Tracy Sampson sues Kelly, alleging that Kelly began having sex with her when she was a 17-year-old intern at Epic Records and that Kelly impregnated her.
- Chicago prosecutors charge Kelly with 21 counts of child pornography centered around a tape that purportedly shows Kelly having sex with, and urinating on, his goddaughter, who was 14-years-old at the time. According to Jim DeRogatis, the Chicago-Sun Times reporter who covered the trial and wrote several stories investigating Kelly’s alleged abuses, “You watch the video for which he was indicted and there is the disembodied look of the rape victim. He orders her to call him Daddy. He urinates in her mouth and instructs her at great length on how to position herself to receive his ‘gift.’ It’s a rape that you’re watching.” Kelly is acquitted after his attorneys successfully argue that the tape could have been manipulated to make the man in it look like Kelly.
- During the trial Lisa Van Allen testifies that she began having sex with Kelly when she was 17-years-old, and had participated in group sex along with the 14-year-old girl in the tape. In her testimony Allen also says that she once broke down crying during a taped sexual encounter and Kelly became angry because the footage was now useless. “He couldn’t watch that, he couldn’t do anything with that,” she said.
- Kelly is arrested in Miami on 16 additional charges of child pornography, authorities claim they found multiple photos of nude, underage girls and photos of Kelly “involved in sexual conduct with the female minor” while searching his residence. The charges are dismissed because the search warrant was deemed to be invalid.
- An unnamed young woman alleges in a more than one-hundred page lawsuit that when she was 14-years-old Kelly discovered her at a Chicago school, Kentwood Academy, and began to have sex with her along with other underage girls he recruited from the school, giving them sneakers and other gifts. She says she’s “scarred” by the experience and later attempts to kill herself by slitting her wrists.
- In 2004 another sex tape leaks and the woman in that tape, Deleon Richards, says that she began having sex with Kelly a decade earlier, when she was a teenager.
- According to DeRogatis, there have been “Dozens of girls — not one, not two, dozens — with harrowing lawsuits,” all of which have been settled by Kelly. DeRogatis also recounts that he also routinely fields calls from other women who say they can’t sleep because they’re haunted by Kelly’s sexual abuse of them as a teenager. It’s important to note that all of the examples above, dozens of examples, only include women who went as far as filing lawsuits against Kelly. There are also reportedly several other examples in which Kelly settled with women before a lawsuit was filed, and droves of other women allegedly abused by Kelly who never pursued any action against him. For example, a woman told the Chicago Sun-Times that Kelly began having sex with her when she was 17 after they met at a video shoot, another said she was involved in group sex along Hawkins, another said she was one of the other girls from Kentwood Academy whom Kelly routinely had sex with, and Chicago area police twice investigated Kelly for completely separate incidents than the incident he was eventually charged for, but dropped those charges when the women declined to press charges.
- Kelly’s longtime publicist, Regina Daniels, abruptly quit saying that Kelly has “crossed a line” by having sex with their then college-age daughter, who Kelly had known since she was seven.
- Kelly’s brother, Carey Kelly, alleges that Kelly attempted to get him to say he was the one in the sex tape, which he refused to do. He also alleges that he was routinely asked to find girls who “looked underage” at Kelly’s shows and get their phone numbers.
- Demetrius Smith, Kelly’s longtime friend and personal assistant, publishes a memoir, The Man Behind the Man, in which he writes that: “Underage girls had proven to be [Kelly’s] weakness. He was obsessed. Sickly addicted.”
Chicago police were incredibly worried that releasing the brutal footage of an officer shooting 17-year-old Laquan McDonald 16 times would incite violence across the city.
But after the video was released Tuesday night, something powerful happened: No violence broke out. Hundreds of outraged residents took to the streets and exercised their right to peacefully assemble. They yelled, cried and chanted. By night’s end, it was clear they want major change.
This morning I woke up to the awful news that my coworker Malcolm London (featured in the 4th photo down) is being held on a felony charge by the CPD. I’ve heard from multiple people that Malcolm was set up and snatched off the street quickly and with intention. There was a smoke bomb thrown behind my coworker Bee Kapri (featured in the last photo) and then Malcom was snatched. Malcolm is a leading, visible organizer and his arrest should only be treated as a specific, political act of terror. This is what they do to black leaders. I love Malcolm and am calling on all people of good conscience to advocate on his behalf.
Texas Police Caught in Enormous Lie About Their Murder of Unarmed Mother Yvette Smith
On February 16, 2014, Yvette Smith, a 47-year-old mother beloved by her family and community, was shot and killed on the spot by local police as she opened the front door of her home. A full 18 months later, as her case finally came before a jury, it’s disturbingly clear that the police lied, repeatedly, in an attempt to cover up their murder of Smith.
On the day of her murder, Smith called 911 for help because two men in her home were arguing over a financial dispute and she felt it was getting out of hand. She had nothing to do with the dispute and was an innocent bystander—a victim, even. When the police showed up, both men were already in the front yard and it appeared that the dispute was settled. This should’ve been case closed, but it wasn’t.
When Smith opened the front door of her home, she was shot twice with a high-powered .223 caliber rifle in less than two seconds by Officer Daniel Willis of Bastrop County, Texas, outside of Austin.
The lies and the coverup began immediately. The entire department was involved.
What you need to know:
Police claim she was holding a firearm and they acted in self-defense. This is a lie. When Sheriff Terry Pickering issued the statement, he was fully and completely aware that Yvette Smith wasn’t armed. No weapon was found on or near her. He knew this. The officers on the scene knew this, but Sheriff Pickering issued that statement anyway. It sounded better.
Knowing that the evidence and scores of eyewitnesses saw that she was unarmed, police later retracted the statement, but have given absolutely no answers or held anyone responsible for the earlier lie—which was the primary reason given for shooting Smith in the first place.
Police also claimed that Smith ignored their commands. On September 17, in open court, we learned that this was also an elaborate lie told to justify police misconduct.
Officer Gaskamp literally admitted that he made the whole damn thing up. He also stated that he couldn’t remember telling this lie to the lead investigator, until they played him the recorded interview where he stated the lie over and over again.
It was discovered that the officer who shot and killed Smith was found incompetent by another police department. The evaluation said the police officer who killed Yvette Smith struggled with “common sense,” but was hired by a neighboring department anyway.
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