1 00:00:14,764 --> 00:00:18,143 I was sickened by what I saw. 2 00:00:18,143 --> 00:00:19,769 A lot of people saw that pee tape. 3 00:00:19,769 --> 00:00:21,146 It was circulating in the streets. 4 00:00:21,146 --> 00:00:23,982 I came across the one with me, him, 5 00:00:23,982 --> 00:00:25,525 and the 14-year-old. 6 00:00:25,525 --> 00:00:28,987 My niece has the same hairstyle she had 7 00:00:28,987 --> 00:00:31,698 when she turned 14. 8 00:00:31,698 --> 00:00:34,492 That was her, for sure. 9 00:00:34,492 --> 00:00:38,790 And that was him, definitely. 10 00:00:38,790 --> 00:00:41,458 Various sexual acts, including urination, oral sex. 11 00:00:41,458 --> 00:00:44,850 For him to do that to her... 12 00:00:49,758 --> 00:00:51,926 Oh, man. 13 00:00:51,926 --> 00:00:53,636 I took it and he never noticed it was gone. 14 00:00:53,636 --> 00:00:57,265 I just didn't know that there was a point in time... 15 00:00:57,265 --> 00:01:00,435 where they were talk... 16 00:01:02,771 --> 00:01:07,484 where they were talking... about killing me. 17 00:01:07,484 --> 00:01:10,403 I should have never introduced her to him. 18 00:01:10,403 --> 00:01:14,949 I should have never introduced my family to him. 19 00:01:14,949 --> 00:01:16,993 How dare you. 20 00:01:18,828 --> 00:01:21,790 How dare you. 21 00:01:52,821 --> 00:01:55,907 There was a bedroom in the studio. 22 00:01:55,907 --> 00:01:57,200 Girls everywhere. 23 00:01:57,200 --> 00:01:58,785 15 to 17 to 18. 24 00:01:58,785 --> 00:02:00,119 We were young. 25 00:02:00,119 --> 00:02:01,329 We were naive. 26 00:02:01,329 --> 00:02:03,873 We were easily influenced. 27 00:02:03,873 --> 00:02:06,960 It wasn't just me that was young that he liked. 28 00:02:06,960 --> 00:02:09,300 It wasn't a mistake with Aaliyah. 29 00:02:09,300 --> 00:02:12,465 He's sleeping with this young girl. 30 00:02:12,465 --> 00:02:15,426 It's like, uh, cattle that has four acres 31 00:02:15,426 --> 00:02:18,429 and he's the only cattle to graze; it's easy pickins'. 32 00:02:18,429 --> 00:02:21,140 This is somebody who's written this inspirational, 33 00:02:21,140 --> 00:02:23,393 motivational song. 34 00:02:23,393 --> 00:02:24,769 It was just massive. 35 00:02:24,769 --> 00:02:26,688 Can he really be the monster? 36 00:02:26,688 --> 00:02:29,107 There's no moral clock there, there's no gage. 37 00:02:29,107 --> 00:02:31,401 I introduced my niece to Robert 38 00:02:31,401 --> 00:02:34,279 and I saw her in the studio by herself. 39 00:02:34,279 --> 00:02:37,574 I would walk in like, "What you doing here?" 40 00:02:37,574 --> 00:02:39,117 Him and I both were actually 41 00:02:39,117 --> 00:02:40,451 having sex with her. 42 00:02:40,451 --> 00:02:42,495 I was unaware, at that time, 43 00:02:42,495 --> 00:02:44,956 of how young she was. 44 00:02:44,956 --> 00:02:46,875 She was actually 14. 45 00:03:05,727 --> 00:03:07,979 When I figured out that 46 00:03:07,979 --> 00:03:10,940 I had had sex with a 14-year-old, 47 00:03:10,940 --> 00:03:13,943 um, it made me feel betrayed, 48 00:03:13,943 --> 00:03:16,195 because he lied to me and told me she was 16, 49 00:03:16,195 --> 00:03:19,616 which would have been close to my age. 50 00:03:19,616 --> 00:03:24,120 And it also made me question his motives. 51 00:03:24,120 --> 00:03:27,957 I mean, the fact that he lied about her age to me, told me 52 00:03:27,957 --> 00:03:30,430 that he obviously knew that wasn't okay 53 00:03:30,430 --> 00:03:32,128 for her to be younger. 54 00:03:32,128 --> 00:03:35,757 It-it made me feel, like, sick to my stomach. 55 00:03:35,757 --> 00:03:39,469 It made me feel disgusted. 56 00:03:39,469 --> 00:03:44,974 I mean, my daughter is older than she is now. 57 00:03:47,310 --> 00:03:49,729 We didn't have sex with her anymore 58 00:03:49,729 --> 00:03:53,149 after I found out that she was that much younger. 59 00:03:53,149 --> 00:03:56,986 We had sex in his home twice. 60 00:03:56,986 --> 00:03:58,321 I didn't see his wife at the house, 61 00:03:58,321 --> 00:04:01,824 but there was a-a situation, um, 62 00:04:01,824 --> 00:04:05,119 between me, him and the younger woman 63 00:04:05,119 --> 00:04:07,872 where he did tell me that his wife was upstairs 64 00:04:07,872 --> 00:04:09,916 when we were in the-- 65 00:04:09,916 --> 00:04:12,168 I call it the Colorado Room, the one with all the wood, 66 00:04:12,168 --> 00:04:14,545 where the infamous sex tape was filmed-- 67 00:04:14,545 --> 00:04:16,339 that room, when we were down there, 68 00:04:16,339 --> 00:04:19,467 one time, he did tell me that she was upstairs. 69 00:04:25,223 --> 00:04:27,183 The girls that were seeing the other side of him, 70 00:04:27,183 --> 00:04:28,851 did you notice them? 71 00:04:28,851 --> 00:04:32,188 Do you know how-- Were they young at that time? 72 00:04:32,188 --> 00:04:35,608 No. He never brought any of them around me. 73 00:04:35,608 --> 00:04:38,861 He was never abusive to anybody in front of me. 74 00:04:38,861 --> 00:04:42,198 He was never a person that, you know, like, 75 00:04:42,198 --> 00:04:44,117 "Hey, do y'all hear that in the room next door? 76 00:04:44,117 --> 00:04:45,910 Is that fighting or something?" 77 00:04:45,910 --> 00:04:48,913 I mean, we have to be realistic about the story line, too. 78 00:04:48,913 --> 00:04:50,999 Seeing some like that, 79 00:04:50,999 --> 00:04:53,376 you-- we really are not gonna be together, 80 00:04:53,376 --> 00:04:56,671 because you're showing me up front who your monster is, 81 00:04:56,671 --> 00:05:00,550 so I think that he strategically did what he did with me. 82 00:05:00,550 --> 00:05:03,720 He kept it away from me for a reason. 83 00:05:03,720 --> 00:05:05,430 It's like sometimes I often wish 84 00:05:05,430 --> 00:05:08,570 I would have just known up front; I really do. 85 00:05:08,570 --> 00:05:10,977 I wish that I would have been able to see the fullness 86 00:05:10,977 --> 00:05:13,210 of the monster I was dealing with 87 00:05:13,210 --> 00:05:14,897 because it probably would have saved me 88 00:05:14,897 --> 00:05:17,734 years and years of pain. 89 00:05:17,734 --> 00:05:20,280 It would have saved me years of abuse. 90 00:05:20,280 --> 00:05:23,156 It would have saved me years of being alienated from my family 91 00:05:23,156 --> 00:05:25,825 if I just would have known up front 92 00:05:25,825 --> 00:05:29,780 what the hell I'm dealing with. 93 00:05:29,780 --> 00:05:32,123 When we first started having sex, 94 00:05:32,123 --> 00:05:35,293 Rob was behind the camera, and he pretty much 95 00:05:35,293 --> 00:05:37,420 would talk us through the motions. 96 00:05:37,420 --> 00:05:41,632 He would never ask me if, um, it was okay to be filmed, 97 00:05:41,632 --> 00:05:44,469 but he never hid the camera or anything like that. 98 00:05:44,469 --> 00:05:50,990 He would just pull-pull out his tripod and his camera. 99 00:05:50,990 --> 00:05:52,268 And he had the whole thing, the lighting. 100 00:05:52,268 --> 00:05:55,730 He'd set it up and he-he liked to-to have control 101 00:05:55,730 --> 00:05:58,274 of the situation because he would tell you 102 00:05:58,274 --> 00:06:02,904 what to do anyways when you were having sex. 103 00:06:02,904 --> 00:06:05,198 When he would put the camera up, he'd just say, 104 00:06:05,198 --> 00:06:07,658 "Make sure you're sitting properly for the camera, 105 00:06:07,658 --> 00:06:09,660 you know, for whatever angle." 106 00:06:09,660 --> 00:06:13,623 And when he'd be done filming, he'd just put it in his bag. 107 00:06:17,668 --> 00:06:20,797 It was 2000, around the same time 108 00:06:20,797 --> 00:06:23,466 when I did the "I Wish" video with him. 109 00:06:23,466 --> 00:06:27,136 I was in the studio, I was in the room, 110 00:06:27,136 --> 00:06:29,889 and he left the bag in the room with me. 111 00:06:29,889 --> 00:06:32,767 And I just happened to open the bag up, 112 00:06:32,767 --> 00:06:37,480 and I started popping the tapes in to see what was on them. 113 00:06:37,480 --> 00:06:40,691 It was just a whole bunch of different tapes with him 114 00:06:40,691 --> 00:06:45,154 having sex with different young girls, I guess, and women. 115 00:06:45,154 --> 00:06:47,782 But I came across the one 116 00:06:47,782 --> 00:06:50,618 with me, him and the 14-year-old. 117 00:06:54,997 --> 00:06:56,999 I watched it and, 118 00:06:56,999 --> 00:07:00,169 as I fast-forwarded some, I'd see other scenes 119 00:07:00,169 --> 00:07:02,755 with just him and her, without me. 120 00:07:05,341 --> 00:07:06,843 Her face, 121 00:07:06,843 --> 00:07:09,262 her chest, it's just, wherever it was going, 122 00:07:09,262 --> 00:07:13,570 he just was-- as if she was a toilet, he was just peeing. 123 00:07:13,570 --> 00:07:15,560 You know, just letting it go wherever. 124 00:07:15,560 --> 00:07:20,231 I thought it was gross and-and weird and, uh, belittling. 125 00:07:20,231 --> 00:07:25,444 In regards to the tapes, Robert taping himself, 126 00:07:25,444 --> 00:07:26,863 he's always did that. 127 00:07:26,863 --> 00:07:28,948 Robert recorded everything. 128 00:07:28,948 --> 00:07:33,452 I mean, R. Kelly tapes his sexual encounters. 129 00:07:33,452 --> 00:07:36,800 And he watched his own movies. 130 00:07:36,800 --> 00:07:38,916 Abusers often want trophies 131 00:07:38,916 --> 00:07:42,170 from their criminal acts, 132 00:07:42,170 --> 00:07:45,131 so people will take things 133 00:07:45,131 --> 00:07:49,260 and be able to place memories 134 00:07:49,260 --> 00:07:51,304 and place maybe even sexual feelings 135 00:07:51,304 --> 00:07:54,560 on trophies that they've taken. 136 00:07:54,560 --> 00:07:57,727 And it's power play. You get to actively replay the act. 137 00:07:57,727 --> 00:08:00,521 And when that's not enough, then you make another tape. 138 00:08:02,565 --> 00:08:04,942 When I saw it, you know, it upset me, 139 00:08:04,942 --> 00:08:06,944 and I didn't want him 140 00:08:06,944 --> 00:08:10,448 to have possession of the tape anymore, 'cause I was on it, 141 00:08:10,448 --> 00:08:14,577 and I took it and kept it on me, and when I got a chance 142 00:08:14,577 --> 00:08:16,370 to go back to my hotel room, 143 00:08:16,370 --> 00:08:19,624 I left it at my hotel room, and he never noticed it was gone. 144 00:08:19,624 --> 00:08:23,836 I actually didn't hold onto the tape that long at all 145 00:08:23,836 --> 00:08:27,548 because I was afraid that he'd find out that I had it. 146 00:08:27,548 --> 00:08:30,635 I had befriended a few of his other artists, 147 00:08:30,635 --> 00:08:32,595 and I actually asked one of them 148 00:08:32,595 --> 00:08:36,557 if they could hold the tape for me. 149 00:08:36,557 --> 00:08:38,392 I remember the first time we were in Detroit 150 00:08:38,392 --> 00:08:41,229 and he came to me and he told me about the videotapes. 151 00:08:41,229 --> 00:08:45,983 He'd say, uh, "Man, you got to help me, man. 152 00:08:45,983 --> 00:08:48,819 "We got to pray, man, 'cause these videos, man, 153 00:08:48,819 --> 00:08:52,782 I can't stop taping myself, man, and..." and so we prayed. 154 00:08:52,782 --> 00:08:58,329 I was privy, and shown, um, videos 155 00:08:58,329 --> 00:09:03,167 while I was still employed and, you know, around, yes. 156 00:09:03,167 --> 00:09:05,544 Um, I never saw the-the bag's videos, 157 00:09:05,544 --> 00:09:07,400 because I think I would've been like, 158 00:09:07,400 --> 00:09:08,297 "Man, what the hell are you doing?" 159 00:09:08,297 --> 00:09:10,508 You know? "What-what are you doing?" 160 00:09:10,508 --> 00:09:13,803 But yes, I-I did see several, several videos. 161 00:09:13,803 --> 00:09:16,138 You know, I didn't know 162 00:09:16,138 --> 00:09:18,432 what was ahead, with those tapes, but Robert did. 163 00:09:18,432 --> 00:09:20,977 And he used to come to me 164 00:09:20,977 --> 00:09:23,854 and he used to talk to me about that. 165 00:09:23,854 --> 00:09:26,148 He'd say, "Man, this is gonna get me in trouble, man. 166 00:09:26,148 --> 00:09:27,316 "I can't seem to stop. 167 00:09:27,316 --> 00:09:30,111 This is gonna destroy me." 168 00:09:41,122 --> 00:09:44,417 My name is Abdon Pallasch. I was the legal affairs reporter 169 00:09:44,417 --> 00:09:46,210 for the Chicago Sun-Times. 170 00:09:46,210 --> 00:09:49,880 Our rock critic, Jim DeRogatis, 171 00:09:49,880 --> 00:09:53,634 got a fax laying out that there was a relationship going on 172 00:09:53,634 --> 00:09:57,540 with R. Kelly and an underage girl. 173 00:09:57,540 --> 00:09:58,931 Jim's the one who really heard about 174 00:09:58,931 --> 00:10:01,642 the dynamic that was going on 175 00:10:01,642 --> 00:10:03,769 in which people in R. Kelly's own circle were saying 176 00:10:03,769 --> 00:10:05,313 that there was an issue there 177 00:10:05,313 --> 00:10:08,482 where he was just hanging out with young girls. 178 00:10:08,482 --> 00:10:11,485 And Jim had gotten word that some of these young women 179 00:10:11,485 --> 00:10:13,696 had actually filed suit against him. 180 00:10:13,696 --> 00:10:16,115 You know, he approached me as the legal affairs reporter, 181 00:10:16,115 --> 00:10:17,491 you know, "Can we check this out?" 182 00:10:17,491 --> 00:10:19,201 And, you know, I went and started 183 00:10:19,201 --> 00:10:21,454 pulling lawsuits and, sure enough, there were some. 184 00:10:21,454 --> 00:10:23,998 And they generally settled out of court. 185 00:10:23,998 --> 00:10:28,836 But the allegations were pretty explosive. 186 00:10:28,836 --> 00:10:32,673 We started uncovering a series of lawsuits that had been filed 187 00:10:32,673 --> 00:10:35,968 and settlements that had been reached with-with young women 188 00:10:35,968 --> 00:10:38,304 that claim that-that they had sex 189 00:10:38,304 --> 00:10:40,681 with R. Kelly when they were underage. 190 00:10:40,681 --> 00:10:45,144 Our first story ran December 21, 2000. 191 00:10:45,144 --> 00:10:49,190 And it said that R. Kelly had been sued by all these girls. 192 00:10:49,190 --> 00:10:53,527 The suits, all added together, 193 00:10:53,527 --> 00:10:55,488 seemed to show a pattern of behavior 194 00:10:55,488 --> 00:10:59,200 of him going after very young girls for sexual relationships. 195 00:10:59,200 --> 00:11:03,496 Immediately after our story ran, 196 00:11:03,496 --> 00:11:06,400 - we started getting calls. 197 00:11:06,400 --> 00:11:07,708 Other girls who said this has happened to them, 198 00:11:07,708 --> 00:11:09,835 from girls who said it happened to their friends. 199 00:11:09,835 --> 00:11:11,837 And we-we did follow-up interviews 200 00:11:11,837 --> 00:11:13,589 with as many of them as we could. 201 00:11:13,589 --> 00:11:15,883 A lot of them were very reluctant and shy. 202 00:11:15,883 --> 00:11:17,468 And a lot of times, they wouldn't want to have 203 00:11:17,468 --> 00:11:20,888 their names used or even have their full stories appear. 204 00:11:20,888 --> 00:11:22,848 These confidential settlements, you know, 205 00:11:22,848 --> 00:11:25,590 if the girls go public, they-they lose the settlement. 206 00:11:25,590 --> 00:11:26,852 You have to pay it back. So there's 207 00:11:26,852 --> 00:11:29,188 a limit to how much more we're gonna get 208 00:11:29,188 --> 00:11:30,773 from-from people that had already been involved 209 00:11:30,773 --> 00:11:32,108 in-in those sort of suits. 210 00:11:32,108 --> 00:11:34,735 These are five, 211 00:11:34,735 --> 00:11:36,737 six-figure settlements. 212 00:11:36,737 --> 00:11:39,407 And so, there we see 213 00:11:39,407 --> 00:11:42,243 the beginning of an ecosystem, right? 214 00:11:42,243 --> 00:11:44,412 Like, there's a-- there's a system 215 00:11:44,412 --> 00:11:47,373 of protecting R. Kelly from accountability. 216 00:11:47,373 --> 00:11:49,917 They said they were minors. 217 00:11:49,917 --> 00:11:51,252 -Mm-hmm. -You settled out of court. 218 00:11:51,252 --> 00:11:53,504 -Yeah. -In this country, 219 00:11:53,504 --> 00:11:56,480 many people will assume that means you were guilty. 220 00:11:56,480 --> 00:11:57,925 Why'd you settle? 221 00:11:57,925 --> 00:12:00,678 I really can't go into detail about that particular thing, 222 00:12:00,678 --> 00:12:02,388 because, when I filed the lawsuit, 223 00:12:02,388 --> 00:12:04,765 um, of course, I signed, uh, 224 00:12:04,765 --> 00:12:06,851 a piece of paper saying I couldn't discuss 225 00:12:06,851 --> 00:12:08,894 -those particular people in the situation. -So there's a confidentiality 226 00:12:08,894 --> 00:12:11,272 -agreement after the fact. -Exactly. Exactly. 227 00:12:11,272 --> 00:12:13,983 The idea that R. Kelly was using 228 00:12:13,983 --> 00:12:16,819 nondisclosure agreements to keep these young girls 229 00:12:16,819 --> 00:12:19,447 and their families quiet, 230 00:12:19,447 --> 00:12:21,115 that means that he is cognizant 231 00:12:21,115 --> 00:12:23,284 of the kind of things that he's doing 232 00:12:23,284 --> 00:12:25,411 and he's trying to protect himself on the front end. 233 00:12:25,411 --> 00:12:28,800 And I think that this is the thing that makes him, to me, 234 00:12:28,800 --> 00:12:29,540 more the-- more of a predator. 235 00:12:31,917 --> 00:12:34,587 You can get people to sign NDAs. 236 00:12:34,587 --> 00:12:36,630 We can make people go away with a check. 237 00:12:36,630 --> 00:12:38,299 We don't have to do this in court, 238 00:12:38,299 --> 00:12:40,134 in front of the cameras and in front of, 239 00:12:40,134 --> 00:12:42,303 you know, the paparazzi 240 00:12:42,303 --> 00:12:43,762 and the tabloids. 241 00:12:43,762 --> 00:12:46,765 We can make these things go away. 242 00:12:47,850 --> 00:12:49,810 His camp was very unhappy 243 00:12:49,810 --> 00:12:52,313 and pushed back hard and said it was all false. 244 00:12:52,313 --> 00:12:54,774 But they couldn't point 245 00:12:54,774 --> 00:12:57,109 to any part of the story that was actually false, 246 00:12:57,109 --> 00:13:00,321 'cause it was all taken from court documents. 247 00:13:00,321 --> 00:13:03,324 At this point, there were tapes floating around. 248 00:13:03,324 --> 00:13:06,760 I-I didn't want a sex tape of me floating around 249 00:13:06,760 --> 00:13:08,746 the Internet or on TV or anything, so... 250 00:13:08,746 --> 00:13:11,373 the only thing I could think of doing at that point would be to, 251 00:13:11,373 --> 00:13:16,170 um, to see if Rob could figure out a way to get the tape back. 252 00:13:16,170 --> 00:13:19,673 I actually ended up contacting Rob 253 00:13:19,673 --> 00:13:22,468 and told him that I had took the tape. 254 00:13:23,677 --> 00:13:28,974 He flew me back up to Chicago. 255 00:13:28,974 --> 00:13:30,559 I told him that they probably wouldn't just 256 00:13:30,559 --> 00:13:33,521 give it back to me, that they probably need something, 257 00:13:33,521 --> 00:13:34,772 or whatever, to get it back. 258 00:13:37,191 --> 00:13:39,401 And so he arranged for them 259 00:13:39,401 --> 00:13:43,531 to be paid to get him back his tape. 260 00:13:43,531 --> 00:13:46,200 He had them take lie detector tests, well, one of the guys, 261 00:13:46,200 --> 00:13:51,380 and me, and, uh, I passed, and the guy did not 262 00:13:51,380 --> 00:13:54,208 because he was lying, he said that he didn't make any copies, 263 00:13:54,208 --> 00:13:56,430 and he actually did. 264 00:13:56,430 --> 00:14:00,172 So, um, he ended up giving, you know, like, a little payment 265 00:14:00,172 --> 00:14:03,342 for that copy and then he said, "When you bring the rest back, 266 00:14:03,342 --> 00:14:06,178 you'll get, you know, the rest of the money." 267 00:14:08,681 --> 00:14:13,227 Rob said $250,000 was what it was gonna be. 268 00:14:14,895 --> 00:14:18,816 He actually gave the money to his accountant. 269 00:14:18,816 --> 00:14:23,612 You know, he ended up getting the tape, uh, for Rob 270 00:14:23,612 --> 00:14:26,532 on the last, uh, visit that I went up there. 271 00:14:35,207 --> 00:14:39,920 I just didn't know that there was a point in time... 272 00:14:46,930 --> 00:14:48,554 ...where... 273 00:14:51,932 --> 00:14:54,310 ...where they were talking... 274 00:14:57,104 --> 00:15:00,858 ...where they were talking... about killing me. 275 00:15:19,126 --> 00:15:22,254 So we started doing the stories, and we'd heard that there was 276 00:15:22,254 --> 00:15:25,466 videotapes out there of R. Kelly with the underage girls, 277 00:15:25,466 --> 00:15:28,177 and we'd let it be known that we'd be happy to, you know, 278 00:15:28,177 --> 00:15:30,971 get those tapes, if they could assist in our reporting. 279 00:15:32,806 --> 00:15:35,170 One day, an anonymous video 280 00:15:35,170 --> 00:15:38,646 was-was dropped off in Jim's mailbox. 281 00:15:38,646 --> 00:15:40,481 So this appeared to be R. Kelly 282 00:15:40,481 --> 00:15:42,816 engaging in sex with an underage girl. 283 00:15:42,816 --> 00:15:46,820 Tongues are really wagging, ears are really burning, 284 00:15:46,820 --> 00:15:50,449 because they're like, "Did you hear about this sex tape?" 285 00:15:50,449 --> 00:15:52,451 So that means everything else that we've been hearing, 286 00:15:52,451 --> 00:15:53,911 we knew it was true. 287 00:15:53,911 --> 00:15:55,829 That set everything off. 288 00:15:55,829 --> 00:15:57,998 The newsroom was in an uproar. 289 00:15:57,998 --> 00:16:00,668 The editors had to make a decision whether or not 290 00:16:00,668 --> 00:16:05,339 this was so important that we could sit and view a tape 291 00:16:05,339 --> 00:16:07,841 and to basically pursue a story 292 00:16:07,841 --> 00:16:11,387 that literally was based in pornography, child pornography. 293 00:16:14,140 --> 00:16:18,310 So it was very easy to look at that videotape 294 00:16:18,310 --> 00:16:21,146 and believe that that was R. Kelly on the tape 295 00:16:21,146 --> 00:16:22,481 and that the girl was underage. 296 00:16:22,481 --> 00:16:23,857 She looked like a child. 297 00:16:26,360 --> 00:16:28,320 I got to tell you, 298 00:16:28,320 --> 00:16:31,865 as a mother and as a grandmother and as a black woman, 299 00:16:31,865 --> 00:16:35,244 I was sickened by what I saw. 300 00:16:35,244 --> 00:16:38,872 It contained very graphic, 301 00:16:38,872 --> 00:16:43,430 um... hardcore porn. 302 00:16:43,430 --> 00:16:45,450 If I could just be blunt. 303 00:16:45,450 --> 00:16:48,600 Various sexual acts, including urination, 304 00:16:48,600 --> 00:16:51,510 oral sex, everything that you can name. 305 00:16:51,510 --> 00:16:53,804 There'd just be denial after denial 306 00:16:53,804 --> 00:16:56,974 from people in the community that knew R. Kelly. 307 00:16:56,974 --> 00:16:58,392 They'd just say, "Oh, it's all wrong, it's all wrong. 308 00:16:58,392 --> 00:17:00,227 These are people out to get R. Kelly." 309 00:17:00,227 --> 00:17:02,104 But, you know, you can't 310 00:17:02,104 --> 00:17:05,650 be dissuaded, you can't be, uh, intimidated out of these things. 311 00:17:05,650 --> 00:17:06,692 We didn't let up our reporting at all. 312 00:17:13,310 --> 00:17:15,993 We were made aware that there was a 14-year-old girl. 313 00:17:15,993 --> 00:17:18,620 His bass player's daughter that he was, uh, 314 00:17:18,620 --> 00:17:21,248 having an-an, a sexual relationship with 315 00:17:21,248 --> 00:17:22,958 at that time we were doing the stories. 316 00:17:25,419 --> 00:17:29,890 Chicago Sun-Times contacted me 317 00:17:29,890 --> 00:17:34,803 and wanted me to come down to their offices to view tapes 318 00:17:34,803 --> 00:17:37,431 that possibly had, 319 00:17:37,431 --> 00:17:40,851 um, girls on it that I may have known. 320 00:17:40,851 --> 00:17:43,771 On the tape, 321 00:17:43,771 --> 00:17:47,107 my niece has the same hairstyle she had 322 00:17:47,107 --> 00:17:50,694 when she turned 14. 323 00:17:50,694 --> 00:17:54,720 That was her, for sure. 324 00:17:54,720 --> 00:17:56,784 And that was him, definitely. 325 00:18:10,130 --> 00:18:13,910 My name is Raven, 326 00:18:13,910 --> 00:18:15,928 and I was friends with the girl in the tape 327 00:18:15,928 --> 00:18:18,388 since 1997, junior high on. 328 00:18:21,350 --> 00:18:23,977 We bonded over basketball. 329 00:18:23,977 --> 00:18:26,480 She and I were the, you know, star basketball players 330 00:18:26,480 --> 00:18:28,482 of our junior high team. 331 00:18:28,482 --> 00:18:30,275 We spent a lot of time together, 332 00:18:30,275 --> 00:18:31,985 both on and off the court. 333 00:18:31,985 --> 00:18:34,290 Her personality was vibrant. 334 00:18:34,290 --> 00:18:35,656 Always happy, 335 00:18:35,656 --> 00:18:39,493 always having a great time, the life of the party. 336 00:18:39,493 --> 00:18:42,704 Just a really fun, wonderful person to be around. 337 00:18:44,790 --> 00:18:46,708 Oak Park is a small town, 338 00:18:46,708 --> 00:18:48,544 so you get to know people quite well. 339 00:18:48,544 --> 00:18:51,171 As a coach, I saw her play from junior high 340 00:18:51,171 --> 00:18:54,299 up until she got on my team as a sophomore in high school. 341 00:18:54,299 --> 00:18:57,100 Her parents were very responsible, 342 00:18:57,100 --> 00:18:59,179 like any family in Oak Park River Forest. 343 00:18:59,179 --> 00:19:00,681 You know, two parents who worked, 344 00:19:00,681 --> 00:19:02,724 sent their kid to the same school they went to. 345 00:19:02,724 --> 00:19:04,893 Very supportive of their kids' activities 346 00:19:04,893 --> 00:19:06,812 by attending those events. 347 00:19:06,812 --> 00:19:10,357 R. Kelly would come to some basketball games. 348 00:19:10,357 --> 00:19:12,317 I would see him in the stands. 349 00:19:12,317 --> 00:19:14,319 It almost seemed like a doting father 350 00:19:14,319 --> 00:19:16,488 when R. Kelly would see her. 351 00:19:18,198 --> 00:19:21,760 It was just strange for me, 352 00:19:21,760 --> 00:19:22,870 to see a-a grown man hanging out at a high school 353 00:19:22,870 --> 00:19:24,204 with high school girls. 354 00:19:27,249 --> 00:19:29,960 Like, you hear things, 355 00:19:29,960 --> 00:19:33,380 but to see it visually, 356 00:19:33,380 --> 00:19:38,343 and for her to be so young... 357 00:19:38,343 --> 00:19:40,220 it me up. 358 00:19:40,220 --> 00:19:44,990 It really did-- like, it's over with, 359 00:19:44,990 --> 00:19:47,227 but it still haunts me. 360 00:19:47,227 --> 00:19:50,397 You know? 361 00:19:50,397 --> 00:19:56,280 And I hate this , that it happened. 362 00:19:56,280 --> 00:19:59,720 It shouldn't have happened. 363 00:19:59,720 --> 00:20:02,743 I should have never introduced her to him. 364 00:20:02,743 --> 00:20:07,247 I should have never introduced my family to him. 365 00:20:07,247 --> 00:20:10,834 Like, how dare you. 366 00:20:10,834 --> 00:20:13,211 How dare you. 367 00:20:23,960 --> 00:20:26,990 How dare you. 368 00:20:29,186 --> 00:20:31,521 What the? 369 00:20:31,521 --> 00:20:33,607 "What are you doing, Robert?" Like, I never thought 370 00:20:33,607 --> 00:20:36,234 he would do this to my family. 371 00:20:36,234 --> 00:20:39,529 I don't know how the Sun-Times got the tape. 372 00:20:39,529 --> 00:20:41,531 Who dropped it off, who sent it, 373 00:20:41,531 --> 00:20:45,327 who threw it-- I-I have no idea. 374 00:20:45,327 --> 00:20:50,499 There was a money transaction from Robert to my niece 375 00:20:50,499 --> 00:20:53,168 in the beginning of this videotape. 376 00:20:53,168 --> 00:20:58,465 After the money transaction, then there was a transaction... 377 00:21:00,920 --> 00:21:02,970 ...if you understand what I'm saying. 378 00:21:02,970 --> 00:21:07,391 A sexual transaction. 379 00:21:07,391 --> 00:21:11,812 And I didn't need to see any more, 380 00:21:11,812 --> 00:21:14,606 'cause I knew it was her. 381 00:21:14,606 --> 00:21:17,734 We were able to confirm 382 00:21:17,734 --> 00:21:21,710 it was indeed her at a time when she was 14. 383 00:21:21,710 --> 00:21:25,742 R. Kelly and an underage girl having sex. 384 00:21:25,742 --> 00:21:27,577 Here, we have evidence of a felony. 385 00:21:27,577 --> 00:21:30,122 Now, you don't want to become an arm of the prosecution. 386 00:21:30,122 --> 00:21:31,999 Journalists are supposed to be separate and apart from that. 387 00:21:31,999 --> 00:21:35,377 But if you find a body in the lobby of the Sun-Times, 388 00:21:35,377 --> 00:21:36,628 you call the police. 389 00:21:36,628 --> 00:21:38,880 And we ultimately did. 390 00:21:38,880 --> 00:21:43,343 Here was a child who was being used by a grown man 391 00:21:43,343 --> 00:21:47,347 for sexual gratification, and obviously, no one cared. 392 00:21:47,347 --> 00:21:50,892 People knew what was going on at his, uh, residence. 393 00:21:50,892 --> 00:21:53,729 They probably saw this girl in and out, 394 00:21:53,729 --> 00:21:56,231 but proving that was a different thing. 395 00:21:56,231 --> 00:21:58,660 It was obvious she was young. 396 00:21:58,660 --> 00:22:00,569 It was on tape. Everybody saw it. 397 00:22:00,569 --> 00:22:02,195 It shows you how rich 398 00:22:02,195 --> 00:22:04,406 and powerful men can get away with a lot of things. 399 00:22:04,406 --> 00:22:06,825 But it also shows the power imbalance 400 00:22:06,825 --> 00:22:10,203 between the abuser and the victim, as well. 401 00:22:12,414 --> 00:22:14,249 Ever since this-this tape thing, 402 00:22:14,249 --> 00:22:16,126 this rumor has come out, you know, there's been 403 00:22:16,126 --> 00:22:17,544 a whole lot of people, you know, 404 00:22:17,544 --> 00:22:19,463 uh, it's been a R. Kelly Day, man. 405 00:22:19,463 --> 00:22:22,132 It's been people trying to, you know, say this or say that, 406 00:22:22,132 --> 00:22:24,134 coming out of the woodwork for me, you know, 407 00:22:24,134 --> 00:22:25,302 just trying to get paid. 408 00:22:25,302 --> 00:22:26,887 I'm not a monster that people, 409 00:22:26,887 --> 00:22:29,222 that people are saying I am, and, uh, 410 00:22:29,222 --> 00:22:32,726 if people out there have a tape of me, and they're saying 411 00:22:32,726 --> 00:22:35,228 it's with me and a young girl, a minor, 412 00:22:35,228 --> 00:22:37,856 then they're sadly mistaken or they're lying. 413 00:22:39,399 --> 00:22:41,276 In his mind, I think he believes 414 00:22:41,276 --> 00:22:43,737 some of his own sick lies. In his mind, he didn't do it. 415 00:22:43,737 --> 00:22:46,156 He has no level of personal accountability 416 00:22:46,156 --> 00:22:48,200 as it relates to his poor behavior. 417 00:22:48,200 --> 00:22:50,243 His attempt to say it wasn't him is ridiculous. 418 00:22:50,243 --> 00:22:52,579 At one point, he's having sex with this woman, 419 00:22:52,579 --> 00:22:56,583 and somebody is yelling from another room, you know, 420 00:22:56,583 --> 00:23:00,128 "R. Kells, pick up the phone. It's phone for you..." 421 00:23:00,128 --> 00:23:01,588 and, like, yelling his name. 422 00:23:01,588 --> 00:23:04,257 Eventually, 423 00:23:04,257 --> 00:23:06,760 bootleg copies of the tape start showing up 424 00:23:06,760 --> 00:23:08,950 around the country. 425 00:23:08,950 --> 00:23:09,554 People are watching it in clubs. 426 00:23:09,554 --> 00:23:11,306 This tape was duplicated 427 00:23:11,306 --> 00:23:13,308 and was for sale all over the South Side. 428 00:23:13,308 --> 00:23:15,519 So you could drive up to a, 429 00:23:15,519 --> 00:23:18,563 one of these, uh, outdoor flea markets and get a tape 430 00:23:18,563 --> 00:23:20,273 of R. Kelly-- 431 00:23:20,273 --> 00:23:23,944 allegedly R. Kelly-- having sex with an underage girl. 432 00:23:23,944 --> 00:23:27,239 This is before the whole advent of-of sex tapes, 433 00:23:27,239 --> 00:23:31,118 and I think the tape came on VHS. 434 00:23:31,118 --> 00:23:33,912 As a matter of fact, it was a VHS tape. 435 00:23:33,912 --> 00:23:37,374 That tape was rushed to me from Chicago. 436 00:23:37,374 --> 00:23:43,880 I'm looking at this tape, I'm like, "Oh..." 437 00:23:45,298 --> 00:23:49,302 Robert has a problem. 438 00:23:49,302 --> 00:23:50,512 A lot of people saw that pee tape. 439 00:23:50,512 --> 00:23:51,930 It was circulating in the streets, 440 00:23:51,930 --> 00:23:53,640 it was, like, a bootleg that went around. 441 00:23:53,640 --> 00:23:55,142 I don't remember what I was thinking at that time, 442 00:23:55,142 --> 00:23:56,643 but I'm like, "How did he get away with this?" 443 00:23:58,728 --> 00:24:00,355 When I think about 444 00:24:00,355 --> 00:24:04,250 this grown man urinating in the mouth of a child, 445 00:24:04,250 --> 00:24:07,700 and how degrading that is, when I first heard it, 446 00:24:07,700 --> 00:24:10,407 it just really concretized for me 447 00:24:10,407 --> 00:24:12,450 that this person is a monster. 448 00:24:14,995 --> 00:24:16,872 The tape is incredibly graphic. 449 00:24:16,872 --> 00:24:19,332 That makes it almost impossible-- 450 00:24:19,332 --> 00:24:21,334 or should have made it impossible-- 451 00:24:21,334 --> 00:24:24,171 for people to pretend that they did not know 452 00:24:24,171 --> 00:24:27,883 that this person had a thing for little girls. 453 00:24:27,883 --> 00:24:30,100 It's strange. 454 00:24:30,100 --> 00:24:31,928 You have R. Kelly performing at the opening ceremonies 455 00:24:31,928 --> 00:24:35,932 of the Olympics... 456 00:24:35,932 --> 00:24:38,894 at the same time that there was this sex tape. 457 00:24:38,894 --> 00:24:41,354 So for R. Kelly to be there, 458 00:24:41,354 --> 00:24:44,399 just speaks to how huge he was. 459 00:24:44,399 --> 00:24:47,402 The story of sexual predation 460 00:24:47,402 --> 00:24:51,281 as an inconvenience in popular music 461 00:24:51,281 --> 00:24:54,951 is so old. 462 00:24:54,951 --> 00:24:58,747 It's been going on for decades, centuries. 463 00:24:58,747 --> 00:25:03,376 Nobody wants to give up the music they love 464 00:25:03,376 --> 00:25:07,470 and nobody wants to think badly of the artists they love. 465 00:25:07,470 --> 00:25:09,507 And I think that happened with R. Kelly. 466 00:25:09,507 --> 00:25:11,384 I was pissed. 467 00:25:11,384 --> 00:25:12,886 I'm like, "Who would do this?" 468 00:25:12,886 --> 00:25:16,306 Not only was I pissed at Robert for filming this , 469 00:25:16,306 --> 00:25:18,475 I was pissed at the person who put this out, 470 00:25:18,475 --> 00:25:21,394 because I'm like, "Look, this is a little girl on this tape." 471 00:25:21,394 --> 00:25:24,689 "Why would y'all do that?" 472 00:25:24,689 --> 00:25:26,691 I was made aware 473 00:25:26,691 --> 00:25:32,155 by, uh, some students that there was a, a, uh, tape, a sex tape. 474 00:25:32,155 --> 00:25:34,950 One of my basketball players with R. Kelly. 475 00:25:34,950 --> 00:25:38,495 Uh, and they were selling it on the West Side of Chicago. 476 00:25:38,495 --> 00:25:42,820 My specialty was sex crimes against minors 477 00:25:42,820 --> 00:25:43,917 for the Oak Park Police Department, 478 00:25:43,917 --> 00:25:47,587 so I went to the West Side, got a copy of this tape. 479 00:25:47,587 --> 00:25:49,589 And I actually saw it at the police station. 480 00:25:49,589 --> 00:25:52,259 It was just very disheartening, it was very sad. 481 00:25:52,259 --> 00:25:55,950 This was the first victim that I personally knew. 482 00:25:55,950 --> 00:25:57,264 And so, it was very heart-- uh, 483 00:25:57,264 --> 00:26:00,850 heartfelt to-to experience this, to see it, 484 00:26:00,850 --> 00:26:03,270 and felt that something had to be done about it. 485 00:26:05,188 --> 00:26:09,442 Watching the tape and just thinking about, you know, 486 00:26:09,442 --> 00:26:11,987 if that were me or if that were my daughter, 487 00:26:11,987 --> 00:26:14,781 it just, obviously, tears me apart. 488 00:26:14,781 --> 00:26:17,492 I wouldn't want that to happen to any young lady 489 00:26:17,492 --> 00:26:19,494 who's still young, still figuring out life, 490 00:26:19,494 --> 00:26:22,372 just looking up to this person who's supposed to be somebody 491 00:26:22,372 --> 00:26:26,840 that you trust and... 492 00:26:26,840 --> 00:26:29,462 that trust, obviously, being taken complete advantage of. 493 00:26:33,466 --> 00:26:35,427 When you found out about that tape, 494 00:26:35,427 --> 00:26:38,540 can you tell me how you found out about it? 495 00:26:43,810 --> 00:26:45,812 It don't even matter. 496 00:26:48,148 --> 00:26:50,859 It doesn't matter how I found out about that tape. 497 00:26:50,859 --> 00:26:53,486 What matters is that it existed. 498 00:26:55,488 --> 00:26:57,365 It doesn't matter. 499 00:26:57,365 --> 00:26:59,409 Who cares? 500 00:27:01,745 --> 00:27:03,747 Should've never happened. 501 00:27:08,251 --> 00:27:11,870 I love that baby. 502 00:27:14,700 --> 00:27:16,259 Like she was mine. 503 00:27:16,259 --> 00:27:19,888 That was my baby. 504 00:27:19,888 --> 00:27:24,100 And for him to do that to her... 505 00:27:33,526 --> 00:27:35,280 Man... 506 00:27:46,664 --> 00:27:48,291 It was 2000. 507 00:27:48,291 --> 00:27:50,960 I had just turned 20 years old. 508 00:27:50,960 --> 00:27:56,383 I ended up, um, missing my period and I told Rob 509 00:27:56,383 --> 00:27:58,385 that I thought that I was pregnant. 510 00:27:58,385 --> 00:28:02,472 And he asked me to, um, did I take a pregnancy test? 511 00:28:02,472 --> 00:28:06,726 I told him I did, and, um, after that, he asked me 512 00:28:06,726 --> 00:28:12,148 to get another test and then to take that one in front of him. 513 00:28:12,148 --> 00:28:15,235 And I did that, and it came up positive. 514 00:28:15,235 --> 00:28:18,154 And, um, he asked me what did I want to do, 515 00:28:18,154 --> 00:28:20,448 and I told him, "To get an abortion." 516 00:28:20,448 --> 00:28:24,285 He contacted his assistant 517 00:28:24,285 --> 00:28:26,579 and a week later, 518 00:28:26,579 --> 00:28:31,126 we went to Planned Parenthood and I had my abortion. 519 00:28:31,126 --> 00:28:35,213 It kind of was, like, the only option to me because, um, 520 00:28:35,213 --> 00:28:38,341 I didn't really want to have a kid by him. 521 00:28:38,341 --> 00:28:40,677 I was concerned with if it would be a girl, 522 00:28:40,677 --> 00:28:42,846 what I would have to deal with, so... 523 00:28:42,846 --> 00:28:44,889 I knew she would get older at some point. 524 00:28:44,889 --> 00:28:47,642 There were, there were things that I just had to think about 525 00:28:47,642 --> 00:28:50,145 in my mind, you know, "Okay, he did this 526 00:28:50,145 --> 00:28:52,564 "with someone else's, um, child, 527 00:28:52,564 --> 00:28:56,109 I mean, what would keep him from doing that to mine?" 528 00:28:57,527 --> 00:28:58,820 What was he like as a father? 529 00:28:58,820 --> 00:29:01,614 Was he loving with your children? 530 00:29:01,614 --> 00:29:04,617 I think Robert loved our children 531 00:29:04,617 --> 00:29:06,411 the best way he knew how. 532 00:29:06,411 --> 00:29:09,122 He didn't have a father figure in his life, 533 00:29:09,122 --> 00:29:13,918 so he really didn't... know how to be a father. 534 00:29:13,918 --> 00:29:16,296 He just knew how to provide. 535 00:29:18,173 --> 00:29:22,218 The thing about Andrea Kelly and him marrying her 536 00:29:22,218 --> 00:29:25,540 is that nobody saw her after that. 537 00:29:25,540 --> 00:29:27,223 It was like she was locked up, 538 00:29:27,223 --> 00:29:30,143 uh, o-on their estate, and she wasn't allowed out. 539 00:29:30,143 --> 00:29:31,811 There were stories about-- 540 00:29:31,811 --> 00:29:34,481 that even if they, she wanted to get her hair done, 541 00:29:34,481 --> 00:29:37,817 or get her makeup done, the people had to come to her, 542 00:29:37,817 --> 00:29:39,819 that she was not allowed to come out. 543 00:29:39,819 --> 00:29:43,239 And so it was a real odd, strange situation. 544 00:29:43,239 --> 00:29:46,242 People were wondering, especially journalists, 545 00:29:46,242 --> 00:29:48,536 why in the midst of all these allegations 546 00:29:48,536 --> 00:29:50,788 of him having sex with underage girls, 547 00:29:50,788 --> 00:29:52,916 number one, why would she marry him? 548 00:29:52,916 --> 00:29:56,753 And number two, was she really free to ever leave home? 549 00:29:56,753 --> 00:29:58,755 Was she a prisoner in her own home? 550 00:29:58,755 --> 00:30:01,174 Just, what that relationship was all about. 551 00:30:01,174 --> 00:30:03,900 There was a lot of speculation about 552 00:30:03,900 --> 00:30:06,950 what was going on in the Kelly household. 553 00:30:07,722 --> 00:30:10,580 I would always hear rumors about, 554 00:30:10,580 --> 00:30:11,184 "Oh, he's being sued by this person, 555 00:30:11,184 --> 00:30:12,727 and sued by that person..." 556 00:30:12,727 --> 00:30:15,688 And it almost seemed like every other week, 557 00:30:15,688 --> 00:30:18,441 he was in the tabloids for something. 558 00:30:18,441 --> 00:30:19,943 Another person's coming forward, 559 00:30:19,943 --> 00:30:21,861 and I'm thinking to myself, like, 560 00:30:21,861 --> 00:30:23,863 "When did you have time? 561 00:30:23,863 --> 00:30:26,866 Are there more--" like, "Do you have a doppelganger around here 562 00:30:26,866 --> 00:30:29,350 that I don't know about?" Like, "When do you have time 563 00:30:29,350 --> 00:30:31,746 "to go to the studio, play basketball, come abuse me, 564 00:30:31,746 --> 00:30:33,623 "be a dad-- when you wanted to-- 565 00:30:33,623 --> 00:30:35,625 "and then go destroy other people's lives, 566 00:30:35,625 --> 00:30:37,627 and still be on the road and shoot videos?" 567 00:30:37,627 --> 00:30:41,297 Like, it was just, my mind couldn't fathom, like, 568 00:30:41,297 --> 00:30:44,551 "How are you doing all this?" 569 00:30:44,551 --> 00:30:46,970 And why didn't I know anything about it? 570 00:30:46,970 --> 00:30:51,224 And I think the frustration set in because it then became 571 00:30:51,224 --> 00:30:54,394 "Drea, the reason why you don't know 572 00:30:54,394 --> 00:30:56,896 and he's able to do it, because he has people helping him." 573 00:30:59,230 --> 00:31:00,900 He had to have backup 574 00:31:00,900 --> 00:31:03,903 in order to continue this level of behavior that he had. 575 00:31:03,903 --> 00:31:06,281 His predatory behavior was supported 576 00:31:06,281 --> 00:31:08,741 by the people around him, in his camp. 577 00:31:08,741 --> 00:31:10,910 And also, it points, to me, to the person who understands 578 00:31:10,910 --> 00:31:12,704 that they're doing something wrong. 579 00:31:12,704 --> 00:31:14,497 Right? That you know that you're doing something wrong 580 00:31:14,497 --> 00:31:15,957 if you have to create systems 581 00:31:15,957 --> 00:31:18,293 to protect yourself from being exposed. 582 00:31:18,293 --> 00:31:21,588 Did you ever meet his wife? 583 00:31:21,588 --> 00:31:24,549 Um, there were times where she'd be checking in 584 00:31:24,549 --> 00:31:26,759 to the same hotel as me at the same time. 585 00:31:26,759 --> 00:31:31,598 She might be with his publicist, and I'd be with his assistant. 586 00:31:31,598 --> 00:31:34,601 He kept us apart. 587 00:31:34,601 --> 00:31:36,769 You have your team, you have your cover-up people. 588 00:31:36,769 --> 00:31:39,230 You have lawyers settling claims out of court. 589 00:31:39,230 --> 00:31:41,983 you don't read and write well, 590 00:31:41,983 --> 00:31:43,776 so you're not booking flights. 591 00:31:43,776 --> 00:31:45,778 Who's booking these flights? 592 00:31:45,778 --> 00:31:49,198 Who's-who's telling the driver to go pick people up? 593 00:31:49,198 --> 00:31:52,910 Who's getting these hotel rooms? He's not doing it on his own. 594 00:31:54,787 --> 00:31:56,789 I tell you, I don't know if the music industry 595 00:31:56,789 --> 00:31:59,000 in all knew about what was going on with Rob, 596 00:31:59,000 --> 00:32:01,502 but I do know that around Rob's camp, 597 00:32:01,502 --> 00:32:04,964 everyone knew, and nothing was done. 598 00:32:04,964 --> 00:32:06,924 And when you have those type of people 599 00:32:06,924 --> 00:32:11,512 who are your yes-men around you, uh, it will continue to happen. 600 00:32:11,512 --> 00:32:15,308 And if it wasn't right, it was obviously buried 601 00:32:15,308 --> 00:32:18,353 so that the rest of the world didn't know about it. 602 00:32:18,353 --> 00:32:20,813 That's the way it was. 603 00:32:20,813 --> 00:32:22,815 It was every day, you know? 604 00:32:22,815 --> 00:32:25,943 It's the same routine, because he can have his way. 605 00:32:25,943 --> 00:32:28,905 We work for him, and this is what he wanted 606 00:32:28,905 --> 00:32:33,326 and so this is what we were supposed to get him. 607 00:32:33,326 --> 00:32:36,370 If you're an adult who's around him 608 00:32:36,370 --> 00:32:38,665 and you're aware and you're not saying anything, 609 00:32:38,665 --> 00:32:41,709 you're just as sick as he is. Please understand that. 610 00:32:41,709 --> 00:32:43,878 It doesn't make you any better because you're not doing it. 611 00:32:43,878 --> 00:32:45,505 If you're aware and you're not saying anything, 612 00:32:45,505 --> 00:32:47,382 you're just as sick. 613 00:32:47,382 --> 00:32:50,927 You've had these relations with young girls. 614 00:32:50,927 --> 00:32:52,929 There's a video. We're not talking about rumors 615 00:32:52,929 --> 00:32:54,597 at this point, we're talking about something 616 00:32:54,597 --> 00:32:58,142 that we can watch, to this day. 617 00:32:58,142 --> 00:33:02,438 So it feels like they're taking a stand against black girls. 618 00:33:02,438 --> 00:33:05,775 It feels like they're taking a stance to say, 619 00:33:05,775 --> 00:33:09,612 "Protecting Robert Kelly and his ability to make music 620 00:33:09,612 --> 00:33:13,241 "and entertain fans means more than what he did 621 00:33:13,241 --> 00:33:16,411 in his private life with these little girls." 622 00:33:20,390 --> 00:33:22,333 R. Kelly has done a really good job 623 00:33:22,333 --> 00:33:26,870 at sort of spreading himself around musically. 624 00:33:26,870 --> 00:33:28,381 So he's got these hypersexual songs 625 00:33:28,381 --> 00:33:30,383 like "Bump n' Grind," and then he's got 626 00:33:30,383 --> 00:33:34,387 the inspirational songs like "I Believe I Can Fly." 627 00:33:34,387 --> 00:33:36,723 And... I mean, you know, 628 00:33:36,723 --> 00:33:40,590 how can the guy who made "I Believe I Can Fly," 629 00:33:40,590 --> 00:33:43,396 which is played on Sunday mornings 630 00:33:43,396 --> 00:33:45,565 in church, in many black churches, 631 00:33:45,565 --> 00:33:50,611 how can that guy be wrong? 632 00:33:50,611 --> 00:33:54,574 One young exec stated, 633 00:33:54,574 --> 00:33:59,287 "I don't care if that is him on that tape, 634 00:33:59,287 --> 00:34:04,292 because we can't afford to lose him." 635 00:34:04,292 --> 00:34:08,296 - I was like, "Wow. - That's some serious." 636 00:34:08,296 --> 00:34:11,174 Can't afford to lose him, 637 00:34:11,174 --> 00:34:16,804 and you don't care if it is him on this tape, with a young girl. 638 00:34:16,804 --> 00:34:18,806 I was like, "That shows what type of... 639 00:34:18,806 --> 00:34:21,934 person you are." 640 00:34:21,934 --> 00:34:24,228 When someone like R. Kelly gets in trouble, 641 00:34:24,228 --> 00:34:27,650 there-there's this knee-jerk instinct to protect him 642 00:34:27,650 --> 00:34:28,649 from "the system." 643 00:34:28,649 --> 00:34:31,652 From the hand of the law, from all these forces 644 00:34:31,652 --> 00:34:33,863 that are at play to make sure that black people-- 645 00:34:33,863 --> 00:34:35,281 black men in particular-- don't succeed. 646 00:34:35,281 --> 00:34:36,783 We have to stand by him. 647 00:34:36,783 --> 00:34:38,951 We have to take care of him. 648 00:34:38,951 --> 00:34:42,413 But his crimes were against black women and girls. 649 00:34:42,413 --> 00:34:46,876 And that was devastating for me, because at this point, 650 00:34:46,876 --> 00:34:49,962 we already knew, but now we know some more. 651 00:34:49,962 --> 00:34:52,632 You know, that this Aaliyah thing was not a moment. 652 00:34:52,632 --> 00:34:55,802 This wasn't, "Oh, my God, she was just so mature, 653 00:34:55,802 --> 00:34:57,553 she was just, I was just spellbound, 654 00:34:57,553 --> 00:34:59,180 there was just something about her." 655 00:34:59,180 --> 00:35:03,309 It wasn't just those rumors about Kenwood. 656 00:35:03,309 --> 00:35:06,145 It's on tape, and it's disgusting. 657 00:35:06,145 --> 00:35:08,640 And the tape is being distributed 658 00:35:08,640 --> 00:35:10,733 in-in barbershops and on porn sites 659 00:35:10,733 --> 00:35:12,985 and it's everywhere. 660 00:35:12,985 --> 00:35:15,404 And people are still not willing to say 661 00:35:15,404 --> 00:35:18,241 "I can't do this with you anymore." 662 00:35:28,167 --> 00:35:33,798 I called my oldest brother... 663 00:35:33,798 --> 00:35:38,177 and I told him that I just had seen a tape, 664 00:35:38,177 --> 00:35:41,347 and it showed our niece on it. 665 00:35:41,347 --> 00:35:44,160 You know, I didn't want to bring it to my sister 666 00:35:44,160 --> 00:35:47,520 because I don't know how to bring this to her. 667 00:35:47,520 --> 00:35:51,232 I couldn't really keep my head in the game at this point. 668 00:35:51,232 --> 00:35:55,194 What mattered was me protecting my family 669 00:35:55,194 --> 00:35:58,531 or-or me protecting my niece. You know what I mean? 670 00:35:58,531 --> 00:36:02,535 That's all that mattered to me. 671 00:36:02,535 --> 00:36:05,705 And I was estranged from the family. 672 00:36:05,705 --> 00:36:08,875 They felt like I was tarnishing the family's name. 673 00:36:08,875 --> 00:36:10,877 Tarnishing the family name? No. 674 00:36:10,877 --> 00:36:12,879 Robert tarnished the family's name 675 00:36:12,879 --> 00:36:17,341 by putting our niece, your daughter, out there like that. 676 00:36:17,341 --> 00:36:20,520 He set out to destroy that family. 677 00:36:20,520 --> 00:36:22,540 That's what I believe, in my heart. 678 00:36:22,540 --> 00:36:24,515 I believe he tried to divide 679 00:36:24,515 --> 00:36:28,352 that family with his poor behavior. 680 00:36:28,352 --> 00:36:33,650 Sparkle is my friend, she is my son's godmother. 681 00:36:33,650 --> 00:36:36,736 She has been and is like a mother to me. 682 00:36:36,736 --> 00:36:39,572 I have always been her little girl, 683 00:36:39,572 --> 00:36:43,951 and I will always be her little girl. 684 00:36:46,162 --> 00:36:50,458 And I watched my friend give up her career to save her family. 685 00:36:50,458 --> 00:36:52,210 Robert knows what he did. 686 00:36:52,210 --> 00:36:54,211 He's not confused about what he did. 687 00:36:55,796 --> 00:36:58,257 Once I came out publicly, 688 00:36:58,257 --> 00:37:00,593 yeah, there was a lot of blowback. 689 00:37:00,593 --> 00:37:04,931 People were unbelieving, people thought I was hating. 690 00:37:04,931 --> 00:37:07,266 People thought I was jealous. 691 00:37:07,266 --> 00:37:10,561 People were still able to dismiss Sparkle 692 00:37:10,561 --> 00:37:13,606 because they felt like she's just trying to get money. 693 00:37:13,606 --> 00:37:15,232 What happened to Sparkle is like, 694 00:37:15,232 --> 00:37:17,777 "You are messing with the money, 695 00:37:17,777 --> 00:37:22,730 "you are in violation, you are talking out of turn, 696 00:37:22,730 --> 00:37:24,450 and now we're gonna shut you down." 697 00:37:24,450 --> 00:37:28,621 It run the gamut of loaded and unloaded 698 00:37:28,621 --> 00:37:31,457 that people were saying about me, to me, 699 00:37:31,457 --> 00:37:34,460 to-- about my family, you know, about my niece. 700 00:37:34,460 --> 00:37:37,588 Her being a little fast girl, like, come on. 701 00:37:37,588 --> 00:37:39,131 She's 14 years old. 702 00:37:39,131 --> 00:37:42,760 The adult is supposed to know not to touch that. 703 00:37:42,760 --> 00:37:47,560 I just remember being completely blown away, 704 00:37:47,560 --> 00:37:51,936 and for this to be happening not only with a high-profile person 705 00:37:51,936 --> 00:37:54,313 that you look up to and admire, 706 00:37:54,313 --> 00:37:57,149 but also somebody that you were very close with, 707 00:37:57,149 --> 00:37:58,985 and at the time, thought everything was fine. 708 00:37:58,985 --> 00:38:01,779 I felt really upset because at the same time, 709 00:38:01,779 --> 00:38:03,739 I'm like, "Well, why wasn't I there for her? 710 00:38:03,739 --> 00:38:06,283 How did I not know? How could I have been there for her?" 711 00:38:06,283 --> 00:38:09,245 Thinking all these things that I could've done. 712 00:38:10,997 --> 00:38:12,790 He has no moral clock. 713 00:38:12,790 --> 00:38:15,376 And I can only imagine what 714 00:38:15,376 --> 00:38:20,339 his wife and his children have endured and did endure. 715 00:38:20,339 --> 00:38:23,175 I can only imagine. I know what I've seen. 716 00:38:23,175 --> 00:38:25,553 I can only imagine. 717 00:38:25,553 --> 00:38:28,140 I can only imagine. 718 00:38:28,140 --> 00:38:29,974 - You also have a family. - Yeah. 719 00:38:29,974 --> 00:38:32,518 How are they dealing with this? You have two children. 720 00:38:32,518 --> 00:38:34,979 Well, my wife is totally behind me, because she knows the truth, 721 00:38:34,979 --> 00:38:37,231 and-and she's in my corner. 722 00:38:39,191 --> 00:38:42,194 He put me on the bus in the middle of the night, 723 00:38:42,194 --> 00:38:45,698 did not tell me why we're going, 724 00:38:45,698 --> 00:38:46,866 what we're going for. 725 00:38:46,866 --> 00:38:48,534 He shipped me off to Florida, 726 00:38:48,534 --> 00:38:50,536 and I'm just staying in this house. 727 00:38:50,536 --> 00:38:52,872 I don't know what's going on, I got security at the door, 728 00:38:52,872 --> 00:38:54,540 nobody's telling me anything, like, 729 00:38:54,540 --> 00:38:56,417 "Why are we here, why did we leave Illinois?" 730 00:38:56,417 --> 00:38:58,836 I'm pregnant, I'm supposed to be going to the doctor, 731 00:38:58,836 --> 00:39:00,504 at least once a week at this point. 732 00:39:00,504 --> 00:39:02,715 I should not be traveling. "What is going on?" 733 00:39:02,715 --> 00:39:05,718 No one would tell me anything. 734 00:39:05,718 --> 00:39:07,386 I was just broken. 735 00:39:17,630 --> 00:39:19,356 Behind the scenes, 736 00:39:19,356 --> 00:39:21,692 the allegations had come. 737 00:39:21,692 --> 00:39:23,903 It was known this tape was there, prior. 738 00:39:23,903 --> 00:39:25,905 It was obviously buried 739 00:39:25,905 --> 00:39:28,908 so that the rest of the world didn't know about it, 740 00:39:28,908 --> 00:39:31,744 until this tape and those allegations popped up. 741 00:39:34,747 --> 00:39:38,417 He put me on the bus in the middle of the night, 742 00:39:38,417 --> 00:39:41,587 did not tell me why we're going, what we're going for. 743 00:39:41,587 --> 00:39:43,255 He shipped me off to Florida, 744 00:39:43,255 --> 00:39:45,910 and I'm just staying in this house. 745 00:39:45,910 --> 00:39:47,930 I don't know what's going on, I got security at the door, 746 00:39:47,930 --> 00:39:49,530 nobody's telling me anything, like, 747 00:39:49,530 --> 00:39:51,847 "Why are we here, why did we leave Illinois?" I'm pregnant. 748 00:39:56,102 --> 00:39:57,436 I'm supposed to be going to the doctor, 749 00:39:57,436 --> 00:39:59,630 at least once a week at this point. 750 00:39:59,630 --> 00:40:01,232 I should not be traveling. "What is going on?" 751 00:40:01,232 --> 00:40:03,776 No one would tell me anything. 752 00:40:03,776 --> 00:40:09,532 I was under so much stress that when I went to the ob-gyn, 753 00:40:09,532 --> 00:40:12,618 they couldn't find his heartbeat. 754 00:40:12,618 --> 00:40:15,246 And I remember getting to the emergency room 755 00:40:15,246 --> 00:40:16,664 and my best friend Angie was with me 756 00:40:16,664 --> 00:40:18,457 and I just remember coming through the door 757 00:40:18,457 --> 00:40:20,626 and they had papers and signing and people were grabbing me 758 00:40:20,626 --> 00:40:23,129 and putting stuff in my arm and I'm like, "Wait, wait, 759 00:40:23,129 --> 00:40:25,470 wait, wait," like, "what are you guys doing?" 760 00:40:25,470 --> 00:40:28,800 And they're like, "We have to induce your labor right away, 761 00:40:28,800 --> 00:40:30,469 because we don't know if the baby's gonna make it." 762 00:40:33,681 --> 00:40:38,185 I just remember them laying me on the bed, 763 00:40:38,185 --> 00:40:40,200 and they were like, "We're gonna give you Pitocin, 764 00:40:40,200 --> 00:40:43,899 we're gonna get this going. Come on, Mom." 765 00:40:43,899 --> 00:40:46,110 And I went through the labor, and I just remember 766 00:40:46,110 --> 00:40:47,820 falling so in love with Little Rob 767 00:40:47,820 --> 00:40:51,490 because he came here so strong, 768 00:40:51,490 --> 00:40:53,617 but I was in that much stress 769 00:40:53,617 --> 00:40:57,830 that it put my unborn child's life in jeopardy. 770 00:40:57,830 --> 00:41:01,333 'Cause here I am, by myself in Florida. 771 00:41:01,333 --> 00:41:06,338 I don't know anybody, I just have my best friend. 772 00:41:06,338 --> 00:41:09,758 And they eventually, again, had to go through ten people 773 00:41:09,758 --> 00:41:12,845 to get him on the phone. 774 00:41:12,845 --> 00:41:16,182 "Mr. Kelly, do you know that they induced your wife's labor? 775 00:41:16,182 --> 00:41:18,517 Like, she just had Little Rob." 776 00:41:18,517 --> 00:41:20,728 He said he was coming back. 777 00:41:20,728 --> 00:41:24,690 But again, I don't know where he is. 778 00:41:24,690 --> 00:41:27,359 And I remember after having him, that's when that day happened. 779 00:41:27,359 --> 00:41:30,290 Mr. Kelly has been indicted. 780 00:41:30,290 --> 00:41:32,156 There's been a warrant issued for his arrest, 781 00:41:32,156 --> 00:41:34,325 and the Chicago Police Department is currently seeking 782 00:41:34,325 --> 00:41:36,285 to arrest Mr. Kelly. 783 00:41:36,285 --> 00:41:38,704 We charge that the acts took place 784 00:41:38,704 --> 00:41:40,498 in Kelly's home in Chicago. 785 00:41:40,498 --> 00:41:43,292 These indictments, hopefully, will send a message 786 00:41:43,292 --> 00:41:47,213 to sexual predators that taking advantage of minors 787 00:41:47,213 --> 00:41:51,258 will not be tolerated and that there are severe penalties. 788 00:41:51,258 --> 00:41:53,260 I'm sitting here with the baby, and then it 789 00:41:53,260 --> 00:41:55,387 comes across the screen, they're like, 790 00:41:55,387 --> 00:41:57,932 "RandB singer R. Kelly has been arrested 791 00:41:57,932 --> 00:42:00,392 on child pornography," and I just remember 792 00:42:00,392 --> 00:42:03,354 my best friend was with me... and she said 793 00:42:03,354 --> 00:42:05,898 she don't know what happened, but my body went limp, 794 00:42:05,898 --> 00:42:09,860 and she said she caught Little Rob before he hit the floor. 795 00:42:09,860 --> 00:42:14,573 And I remember, like, a buzzing sound. 796 00:42:14,573 --> 00:42:16,909 It almost felt like I couldn't hear. 797 00:42:16,909 --> 00:42:18,619 And I saw the screen, 798 00:42:18,619 --> 00:42:21,247 and they showed his name and the police, and... 799 00:42:21,247 --> 00:42:26,126 I just, I don't even remember a lot after that. 800 00:42:26,126 --> 00:42:29,129 What about the child porn charges? 801 00:42:45,813 --> 00:42:49,400 The police found media of R. Kelly 802 00:42:49,400 --> 00:42:51,277 with plenty of other young girls 803 00:42:51,277 --> 00:42:52,778 that appeared to be underage. 804 00:42:52,778 --> 00:42:54,780 Kelly is accused of videotaping himself 805 00:42:54,780 --> 00:42:56,490 having sex with an underage girl. 806 00:42:56,490 --> 00:42:59,910 Y'all need to leave him alone. That's not R. Kelly. 807 00:42:59,910 --> 00:43:02,246 Women lined up to show support for R. Kelly. 808 00:43:02,246 --> 00:43:03,455 I love me some R. Kelly. 809 00:43:03,455 --> 00:43:04,832 I went to his trial 810 00:43:04,832 --> 00:43:06,583 because I was a superfan at the time. 811 00:43:06,583 --> 00:43:09,628 At the courthouse, his eyes were always fixated 812 00:43:09,628 --> 00:43:11,755 on the young girls. 813 00:43:11,755 --> 00:43:14,300 Do you like teenage girls? 814 00:43:14,300 --> 00:43:16,635 He invited me back to his mansion in Olympia Fields. 815 00:43:16,635 --> 00:43:17,970 You know what you did. 816 00:43:17,970 --> 00:43:20,139 And he told me to bring a bathing suit. 817 00:43:20,139 --> 00:43:22,474 You know the turmoil you brought into my kids' life... 818 00:43:22,474 --> 00:43:24,310 I was 14 years old. 819 00:43:24,310 --> 00:43:27,146 ...and for that, you can go to hell.