All language subtitles for Surviving R. Kelly - 01x04 - The People vs. R. Kelly.TBS

Initially, I met R. Kelly
by going to his trial.

I met him when I was 14,
and I was, like, on the fence,

and I wanted to know, like,

did he really do
what everyone said he did?

Here is a man who is going
on trial for having sex

with an underage girl,

and yet you had women
not supporting the victim,

but supporting the guy
who's going on trial.

I screamed
at the top of my lungs,

"What is wrong
with this person?"

His poor decisions
have ruined so many lives.

He destroyed my family.

When we first
started having sex,

Rob was behind the camera,

and I started popping the tapes
in to see what was on them.

But I came across the one
with me, him,

and the 14-year-old.

Bootleg copies of the tape start

showing up around the country.

This is the one that makes it

almost impossible
for people to pretend

that they did not know
that this person

had a thing for little girls.

Chicago Sun-Times contacted me

to view tapes

that possibly had girls on it

that I may have known.

That was her, my niece,
for sure.

And that was him.

Police are
investigating a video

allegedly showing
the R & B singer having sex

with a 14-year-old girl.

The Chicago Police Department

is currently seeking
to arrest Mr. Kelly.

Radio stations WTMG, Magic 101.3

and WKZY Lite Rock 106.9

will immediately end
all airplay of Kelly's songs.

R. Kelly is arrested
on the Chicago charges.

The charges they filed
against him were not

statutory rape charges;
they filed

child pornography charges.

It's the same penalties

but is easier to prove
if you cannot

pin it down to a specific date.

There was no date on the tape.

What about
the child porn charges?

Not right now, guys.

R. Kelly!

He ultimately had
to face the charges

in a Chicago courtroom.

He pleads not guilty
and posts his bail,

and he's released.

After R. Kelly pleads
not guilty,

he goes straight
to a South Side church,

he goes straight to an event

where he is admired
by young children.

Here he is being prosecuted

for allegedly having sex
with an underage girl,

and ministers, civil rights
leaders in the city of Chicago

wanted to play up
the side of him

that did the
"I Believe I Can Fly,"

and not the side of him
with the raunchy lyrics

that kind of went along
with possibly having sex

with an underage girl.

And it really speaks
to the duplicity of R. Kelly.

Kelly posted bail,

um, and was allowed to continue
to, you know, travel

during the legal fight
that he was facing.

There's no surprise
that he continued

business as usual every day.

I met him back in the early '90s

and started doing odd jobs
for him.

I was friends with him during
the trial and the sex tape.

During that time,
I was believing him

when he said it wasn't him.

That was the story.

I believed it wasn't him

because I had
never seen the tape.

However, there were some people
who were around

who had actually seen the girl,
who would later say, you know,

well, she was around
and even when the trial

was going on, he would still
have her around.

But those stories didn't start
to come out until later.

You know, people
in the, in the camp

would start to talk about it.

About a year later,
after R. Kelly was arrested

on the 21 counts,
he was, um, arrested again.

He was in Miami and it was
on additional porn charges.

We seized,
at that time, camera equipment

and 12 digital photos

which we believe
to be child pornography.

Do you understand
that anything you say

can and may be used against you?

I remember being at my brother

and sister-in-law's house,

and the detectives
showing us stills.

It wasn't a pretty sight.

They showed my niece,

Robert,
and another young lady...

intertwined.

And I screamed
at the top of my lungs,

"What the is going on?
What is going on?

What is wrong with this person?"

Unfortunately,
the judge down in Florida

concluded that the police
did not have

appropriate reason to search
the area where they found

the materials and the camera,
uh, so tossed out that evidence.

And then the Florida case
eventually was dropped.

In the middle of all
of the-these allegations,

R. Kelly is just dropping music.

Big song he released,
"Ignition," the remix.

It deterred us away
from all of the allegations,

and our focus then became
on this music.

After that video came out...

his career should've been over.

"Oh, he's still gonna put
records out,

and people are still gonna
buy 'em?" And they did.

Kelly has lost nothing

in terms of fan support,
in terms of the many thousands

of men and women who continue
to support their R & B hero.

The albums were still selling

because the community,
for all intents and purposes,

were still supporting him.

And then came Chocolate Factory,

which debuted at number one
on the Billboard charts.

R. Kelly drops the most
undeniable hit of his career

at exactly the same moment
he's on trial

for these unfathomable crimes.

And then he came with
"Step in the Name of Love."

When R. Kelly released
"Step in the Name of Love,"

it's sort of in this tradition
of black family music.

We have these songs
that become songs

that are anthem-like
in the black community.

It's the song that you dance to
at weddings, a family reunion.

It gave him another layer
of-of covering.

That song that they love

is connected to a moment
in their life,

whether they got married
to one of his songs

or they had their first dance
to one of the songs.

I think we love nothing more
than the success story,

a rebound story.

I think that, again,
largely in the black community,

he was not thought of as guilty,

even though
the evidence was there.

"Nobody's gonna stop this train.
You can't stop me.

"I'm still out of jail,
I'm free as a bird,

"so I'm gonna make this music,
I'm gonna get it out,

"and I'm gonna prove
that you guys love me so much

"that no matter what I do,

you're still going
to praise me."

And that's kind of like
what it felt like.

You never really knew what to
believe, but you knew that you,

in a way,
felt sorry for his wife.

Andrea Kelly's mother called me.

She was concerned about
not hearing from her daughter.

That was very dark
for her, very rough,

not knowing
what the outcome could be.

He denied it
for the longest time.

Like, "Drea,
it's not what you think.

They're lying on me,
somebody set me up."

I finally realized
it doesn't get better.

It gets worse.

I had small children.

They were already dealing
with their father in the news,

having a court case that deals
with pedophilia and children.

And I remember going out
on the balcony

and climbing up on the ledge.

Like,
"God, I can't take another day.

I can't do this anymore."

He had taken me to a place

that I was willing
to leave my babies.

So I just prayed
and asked God for a sign.

And something said
to get my laptop, and I went

to the National Domestic
Violence Awareness Hotline.

And there's 17 questions.

There was only two things
on that list

that Robert hadn't done to me.

And that's when it became real
to me, like...

"Drea, you're being abused."

We often look at women

and we blame them. We say,
"All you have to do is leave.

All you have to do
is-is walk out."

But it's not that simple.

There are psychological blocks
that an individual has

that have been fed throughout
the whole situation

that stops them from leaving.

It takes about seven tries
for a girl

to successfully leave
her abuser for good.

That statistic tells us
how difficult it is, often,

to pull away
from these relationships.

The day

that I left Robert...

I was like any other woman.

Running in the middle
of the night.

$2,500, a duffle bag,

my three babies,
and nothing else.

He has all the money.
"Where you going

with three babies?"

No money.

But I would rather die,

knowing that I tried
to get away from him,

than to die right there
in the house

because I didn't have
the courage to leave.

Robert, you know what you did.

You know the turmoil
you brought into my kids' life.

You destroyed Christmases,
birthdays, graduations.

It's because of you, Robert,
that my children were told

they can't sit
at the lunch table.

"'Cause your daddy
rapes little girls."

You can deny all you want to.

And for that,
you can go to hell.

At the time that tape came out,

R. Kelly was the biggest artist
in R & B

and arguably
one of the biggest artists

in the recording industry
at that time,

in terms of actual record sales.

I can't remember any

artists speaking out
against Robert,

regarding this tape.

It made me feel
like I didn't want

to be a part
of this industry that

I had grown to love.

This is an
industry where anything goes.

And... before you know it,

you are all sucked in.

At what cost? At what cost?

It would have been
a difficult decision, right?

When we go...
when we go to the chairman

and say,
"Should we keep R. Kelly?"

And he's like, "Well,
how much is he generating?"

And he's like,
"Well, yeah, but, you know,

he-he might've statutorily raped
a couple... girls,"

and like...

"Yeah, but how much
is he generating?"

So there's
a whole world of people,

people close to him,
people in the industry,

who he is a--
he's a font of money.

Getting him on your
radio station means ratings,

getting him in your
concert venue means money,

and because the thing
dragged on

some insane amount of time,

it gave him breathing room

to rebuild a lot
of those relationships.

And so then he does this weird
"Trapped in the Closet" stuff.

If he hadn't done
"Trapped in the Closet,"

I think his career would've been
really in trouble a lot earlier.

Like a lot of his music, it's
very much telling on himself.

It's a whole thing about a man

and-and different people
trying to deal

with whoever they really are

and being constantly surprised
at-at how debased they are

and how debased
the world is around them.

I think,
at some point, he probably

figured out that playing sex
for laughs was

a way that he could continue

to avoid absolute condemnation

for what he might've been
doing behind the scenes.

He wasn't as much
a guilty pleasure, I think,

for audiences at this point,

as he was like a bad boy,
like an antihero.

You know, like,
y-you know that he's bad,

you know that he's dirty.

The accusations are now a part
of pop culture as much as he is.

We, at this point,
have seen Dave Chappelle's

- "Pee On You" sketch.

We've seen the "Trial of R.
Kelly" episode on The Boondocks.

Uh, you there, urban youth,

why do you think
R. Kelly is innocent?

If I started peeing
on you right now, would you:

A) smile and ask for more,
or B) move the hell out the way?

We associate him
with urinating on somebody.

That's a punch line.
That's a joke.

As the years go by,

there's never any trial date
set for the Chicago charges,

and we're wondering,
what is taking so long?

This has never happened.
No one can think of a case

that has gone on for year
after year after year like this.

It's in R. Kelly's interest
to have this delayed

as long as possible.

You'd much rather have

a 21-year-old girl on the stad

than a 14-year-old girl
on the stand.

The right to a speedy trial
under the U.S. Constitution

is-is-is sort of a right
guaranteed to the defendant.

So if the defendant
thinks that things

are dragging on too long,
the defendant can say,

"Hey, I have a right
to a speedy trial.

We have to go to trial
in the next 60 days, whatever."

R. Kelly never took advantage
of that.

Rob's team put it off
for all those years

because if it wasn't fresh
in people's mind,

uh, you know, they wouldn't
really be concerned

with what was going on.

The long-delayed
child pornography trial begins.

Kelly is accused of videotaping
himself having sex

with an underage girl
some time

between January 1998
and November 2000.

Kelly's defense team contends
it is not Kelly on the tape.

I just want to say,
y'all need to leave him alone.

That's not R. Kelly.

One of the things

that was laughable, uh,

with Robert trying
to profess his innocence,

was that that was his brother
Carey on the tape.

He definitely
does not look like Robert.

You can tell them apart.

That was laughable to me
because I'm like,

"Really? You-You're gonna
throw your brother there now?"

It seemed sort of like
a Hail Mary pass to try and say

it could be his brother
there on the tape.

He never said it
out of his mouth,

but his legal team did,
so I had to speak out

to defend myself, my character,

you know, um,

and so I did.

If you're
just turning on your radio,

we're talking to Carey Kelly,
R. Kelly's younger brother.

You did a body double

for your big brother Robert
in "Your Body's Callin'"

and things kind of turned,

I mean, a little ugly

when this whole
child molestation thing

- came into play.
- Mm-hmm.

People were trying
to say it was you.

His attorney said that
it was me in the videotape.

What?
That was made--
that was their argument.

He never came forth and said,

"Hey, you know, what y'all
hearing is not true."

"I am not a child molester,

but it definitely wasn't
my brother in that video."

Exactly. Exactly.

And when my kids started
getting teased at school.

I have a 15-year-old
daughter...

Oh, God.

...that got stomped
by 15 girls.

I made police reports,
the whole nine.

She was just defending
her father. That's it.

So tell me
what you saw on this tape

with these 12-year-old girls.
Why do we say that they're 12?

Well, because he's, like,

he was interviewing them
on these tapes.

So, the girls were on there

being interviewed by him,
and he-- they're saying

their real names
and that they're 12 years old.

- You see the sex
and all like that.
Right.

You think your
brother's gonna do jail time?

Or do you think
he's going to get off?

Well, my opinion is this:

what's done in the dark
shall come to the light,

and everybody on this earth got
to pay for what they've done,

- even if he don't do jail time.
- Wow.

He still got to pay
for what he done.

So I spoke out and said, "Hey,
that's not me. That's not me."

You know, I have nothing
to do with that.

I took it further
and said other things that...

that I had no knowledge of.

I was just saying things to
actually hurt him, to be honest.

I was saying things that
I heard other people saying.

He's a pedophile. He-He's, you
know, he-he has molested girls.

So I was saying that
because that's what I heard.

I never saw it.

Robert simply asked Carey

to tell the truth.

Do a deposition
with his attorneys

that the things that
he was saying was not true.

And he said, "If you...

"do this deposition
with my attorneys,

"I will give you $100,000

and a one-record contract deal."

I'll never understand that
as long as I live.

You could've been rich.

I'll never understand that.

Free R. Kelly!

When the trial began,

this was a big, major event.

So it was a real circus.

There was a lot
of journalists there,

probably a good 30, 40
journalists covering the trial.

I have one question.

Where was the parents when
the girl was getting?

Women lined up,

most of them African-American,

they lined up to show support
for R. Kelly.

He's not guilty at all.

They just want to bring him
down and kill his image.

Not support for the victims.

Not support for the young girl,
whomever she was, on the tape.

And that was shocking
to many of us.

There were young girls

who were at the courthouse
every single day

for the trial. They were fans,

but... somehow they...

got to talk to him.

My name is Jerhonda Pace.

I'm from Chicago.

When I started going
to Robert's trial,

I was 14 years old.
I was a freshman in high school.

My mom, she was, like,
that working single mom,

so it was very easy for me to,

uh, skip school
and go to his trial

and have my mom not even see it

or have a clue
that I was doing it.

I went to his trial because
I was a superfan at the time.

And the fact that it was a trial
that was open to the public,

I was excited to go.

I got the chance to engage
in conversations with him.

So I would just say,
"Hey, good morning."

He would speak back
and I would tell him,

you know, keep his head up.

The same thing that I would say

outside of the courthouse,

and he would always thank me
for my support.

His eyes were always fixated
on the young girls.

So he would look
and he would do, like, a smile

and a nod, like,
"Oh, okay, I see you."

And it just made us, you know,

wonder more
and talk more of, like,

you're on trial for this and
you're allowing yourself to be

enamored by young girls.

I mean, it was just...

I would want to say that we were
surprised, but we weren't.

It was mind-boggling.

A former music
protégée of Kelly, Sparkle,

has publicly declared
that the girl

on the video
is her young niece.

I felt partially responsible

because I introduced
my family to him.

And it felt like
it happened on my watch.

Robert's legal team was...

basically trying
to say that, you know,

I just was out for money

and, um, I was bitter.

They offered me upwards...
six figures,

high in the six figures for me
and Robert to have a sit-down

with all media around us

to say that
"Sparkle and I are okay.

We're 'Kum-Bah-Yah.'"

I didn't take the money
because I can't be bought.

I'm-a stand up for my family.

The trial--
there was eight white jurors

and four African-Americans.

The atmosphere in the courtroom
was... somber.

We all understood we had
to watch the-the film,

that it was the-the central

piece of evidence in this case,
but nobody...

nobody wants to watch that.

The prosecution--
their entire case was the tape.

They turned down the lights

and they put it on,
and it was... it's grim.

You're sitting in a room

with 50, 60 people
watching child pornography.

She's very obviously,
like, a pubescent girl.

It made me feel gross.

During testimony today
on the child pornography trial

of singer R. Kelly,

witness after witness
identified those

on that now infamous sex tape as
the alleged victim and R. Kelly.

So the prosecution
had 14 witnesses.

I just remember being terrified

when I was called
to the witness stand.

But here's this person
who I was great friends with,

who's a great person, and all
this is happening to her now.

And I was trying to help
the case by giving any

specific details that
I thought might really,

you know, seal the deal and make
sure that he was found guilty.

They played the tape
because they wanted it to be

kind of fresh in my memory.

And I remember,

once again, just kind of getting
maybe halfway through

the whole tape and just
breaking down and crying.

I testified in this trial

because I coached her,
I knew the parents.

I knew everything about her.
I can describe her.

I picked her out
as soon as I saw the video.

But when I had a chance
to speak with the mother,

she said
that's not her daughter.

Her parents denied
that this happened.

It could be embarrassment.

There's a lot of variables
in that.

To this day
I can't put it on one,

but I believe there was
a combination of things

that affected how
this outcome came about.

I recognized

the 14-year-old's body

because I had had sex
with her and Robert.

So, you know,
it was no doubt in my mind

that it was her body.

I mean, we'd done oral
on each other.

I mean, I touched her breasts,

I, you know, looked at,
you know, those parts.

So there was no doubt
in my mind that it was her.

When I came forward,

it was important to me
to stand up

and tell the truth
during the trial

and be a witness for
the prosecution in the trial.

I did have to make
eye contact with Robert

because they wanted us
to identify him

as the defendant.

I had to sit up a little bit
to see him,

because he was
slouched down in the chair.

And when I did that,

he looked at me
but then put his head down.

And I was like,
"Yeah, that's him right there.

That's him."

My oldest brother
did get on the stand...

...and he said

that it wasn't her,

it wasn't my niece on the tape.

I don't know

what my family was thinking.

Like I said, we were estranged.

For ten years
I didn't speak to my family

because of that.

It's crazy.

The case against
R. Kelly is complicated

by the fact that
there is no accuser.

Like Kelly, the girl alleged
to be on the tape says,

"It wasn't me."

Being a mom now,

you can't fathom your child
being in that situation.

I would do anything
to protect my child

and to keep my child safe.

For all I know, she wa-wanted
to just live a normal life.

Um... and I felt really torn
because, you know,

my faith and my morals told me
I needed to come forward,

because what he did was wrong.

And that's all I knew,
and I was trying to,

you know, keep him
from doing it ever again.

I just want to know why,

at the end of the day,
he can sleep at night

knowing that he's affecting
these innocent young girls.

Girls that are still trying
to figure out themselves,

still trying to
figure out relationships...

...and taking full advantage
of that.

I will never understand that.

It's sickening.

The jury is deliberating

in R. Kelly's
child pornography case.

Jurors reportedly met for three
and a half hours yesterday

before breaking for the night.

This is what we think
about him and his music.

R. Kelly is innocent.

You think
the listeners should still

support R. Kelly,

even though we haven't found out
whether he's innocent

or guilty as of yet?

Well, right.
That could be you or me.

It's been six years
in the making...

Over here.

...and the time
has finally come.

At the end of the case,

my belief, in watching
closing arguments

and in talking
to our trial prosecutors,

was that we had presented
a good case.

It had gone in as well
as could be expected.

There were issues,
and it was up to the jury

to decide those issues.

Before the verdicts came down,

I saw Sam Adam Jr., who was
sitting next to R. Kelly,

turn to him and say,

"We did everything we could."

And the mood in the room
was very much

that he was about to be
a condemned man.

When the verdict came down

for the R. Kelly trial,

we're trying to read
the judge's face,

and you couldn't read it.

Everyone in
the courtroom thought he was

gonna be found guilty.

Rob was very scared

of going to jail.

They announce the verdict.

When they said "not guilty,"

every reporter's face
was like...

Not guilty?
You've got to be kidding me.

Kelly says, "Thank you, Jesus.

Thank you, Jesus."

Kelly's lawyers are ecstatic.

Uh, they're hugging R. Kelly,
who's crying.

They seem to be
almost taken by surprise.

I just said one word. Wow.

And that was it.

I don't know
if race played a part

in this trial or not,
but if it were

white children that were
being molested

by a black man in this case,

I'm sure Rob would have
gone to jail very swiftly.

When he left home this morning,

R. Kelly had no idea
when he'd be back.

His fate was in the hands
of jurors

who could have sent him
to prison for years.

Instead, tonight
they set him free.

With women that came out

against him and said,

"I was in an underage
relationship with him.

He did this to me,
he did that," what...?

I-I just didn't believe them--
the womans.

I know it sounds ridiculous.

The way they dress,
the way they act.

I didn't like them.
I voted again--

I disregarded
all what they said.

I was happy for the verdict
at the time.

I was happy.

I felt

wonderful when he--
they said not guilty.

That's how I felt, wonderful.

I think that Robert

wasn't convicted because
my niece and sister

and brother-in-law
didn't come forward.

Regarding criminal cases, if
there is no willing participant,

then really there's no case.

I really don't know if my family
was paid off.

I know the family was still
hanging out with him.

My brother-in-law
was still playing guitar

on a lot of his songs.

And that's...

what it is.

After R. Kelly got off trial,

there was conversation at BET,
like, "We should interview him,"

and I was the guy who was
gonna do the interview.

We were in a sort of
fancy Chicago hotel suite.

He came
with this crisis manager.

He was very nervous
before we started.

I remember saying hi
to him before we started,

and he was kind of, like...

clearly knew, like,
this is a big moment.

I asked him, just point blank,
"Do you like underage girls?"

And his crisis manager stood up
and ran into the shot.

"No! You can't ask him that!
You can't ask him that!"

And Kelly said, "No, no.

I want to answer that."

- Let me ask you something.
- Mm-hmm.

Real. That millions of Americans
are thinking about.

-Okay.
-Do you like teenage girls?

When you say teenage,
h-how old are we talking?

Girls who are teenagers.

-19?
-19 and younger.

I have some 19-year-old friends,

but I don't like
anybody illegal,

if that's what we're
talking about, underage.

This is the first easy, obvious,
simple softball question.

"Do you like teenage girls?"

You just got off
a child pornography trial.

Obviously you're gonna say no,
and then we'll move to something

a little harder
and then something harder.

And I'm thinking, you know,

don't let him see that
he's made a huge mistake.

Like, that he's ju...

'Cause his face
and the question seemed like,

"Wow, like,

wow, teenage girls,
like, I love this subject."

I assumed that that
would get cut out.

And when it finally aired,
I was like,

"Oh, my God, they aired it."

I felt sorry

for his wife because now
she's embroiled in everything.

She's attached to him legally.

The abuse had gotten
so bad with Robert

to the point
I left with nothing.

If you look
at my order of protection,

in my restraining order,

it was actually the judge that
crossed it out and wrote in,

"He is to have no contact
with the children."

After the divorce, people
are quick to pass judgment

and they have no idea

that, behind the scenes--

you think I'm living
this great life--

I'm in foreclosure court
on my house. Why?

Robert stopped paying
child support

as a way to punish me.

So people think that I'm living
this great, lavish life,

but they don't understand.

I've got lawyers,
going back and forth to court.

I'm trying to get him served
with an arrest warrant

because you're not paying
child support,

which is criminal by law.

I'm dealing with all of this
and people just think,

"Oh, well, you know,
she wants to come forward now

because them checks stop..."

The checks been stopped, boo.

The checks have been over
for a very long time.

That has nothing to do with it.

I have three small children
that I had to think about

before I could come forward.

That's a lot for my children
to deal with.

I had to make sure
my children were okay

before I could come forward.

I had to make sure, emotionally,

they were where
they could handle it.

I went to his trial

because I was a superfan
at the time.

I didn't believe he was guilty,

and I didn't want to believe
that he was guilty.

I was a freshman
in high school.

He was old for me to like him,

but I fell in love
with his music.

After Robert's trial,
his friend

sent me a message and invited me
to R. Kelly's party.

And in the middle
of me texting him back.

Rob-- he actually
called my phone.

And he was telling me,
he's like, "I remember you."

And I said, "Well,
what do you remember me from?"

He said, "You came to my trial.
Thank you for your support."

I was shocked.

I felt like I was
on top of the world.

Having a music star,

like R. Kelly,
pay attention to you

would be phenomenal,
make you feel very special.

She is a lifelong fan.

Someone who, even though

she's sitting through the trial,
looking at the images,

she still doesn't
want to believe it

because in her mind--
and she was so young--

this is the person that spoke
to her through music.

He invited me back to
his mansion in Olympia Fields,

and he told me to bring
a bathing suit.

By this time it was like

a little bit
after my 16th birthday.

I did lie about my age
and tell him that I was 19.

What we know about teenagers is
that their long-term planning,

that part of their brain
hasn't developed yet.

They feel the excitement
and the rush of things,

but they don't necessarily have
the brain capacity

to make the best decisions.

Insert an adult that has
nefarious motivations,

and that person

can use all of those things
to his advantage.

He said, "Don't let anybody

know where you're going"

and he said, "And from now on,
when you, uh, talk to me,

you're gonna call me Daddy."

And I said, "Okay."

And he said, "Okay, what?"

And I said, "Okay, Daddy."

And then I hung up the phone.

And looking back on it,

I was naive.

When Rob invited me
to his house,

I was 16 years old.

I was excited.

I was like, "Oh, my gosh,
this is so unreal."

I didn't tell anyone
I was going to his house.

It was like a little secret.

He was getting ready for

a pre-listen party
for his album Untitled.

We were just talking
back and forth.

And he talked about

being molested as well--
he told me he was molested

by a older guy
in his neighborhood.

And one of the females

that used to watch him was
sexually abusing him as well.

And I felt
like we had a connection

'cause I told him I was sexually
abused when I was four,

when I was six,
and when I was eight years old.

Women who have histories

of child sexual abuse

are more likely
to be victimized as adults.

She could have trouble
asserting herself,

um, advocating for herself.

And so, for somebody who is
targeting potential victims,

that's gonna be
an attractive target for them.

I felt like, "Wow.
So I'm not the only one.

I'm not alone with the whole
sexual abuse thing."

And I felt like
Rob confided in me,

and I felt like
I was confiding in him as well.

When I hear of a perpetrator
or someone who's opening up

about their sexual abuse,
two things pop up for me.

The individual
is really looking

for someone to talk to
about this.

"I'm going
to use this story as a way

of manipulating and getting
people to come closer to me."

Hey, look at my pain,
identify with it, feel for me,

allowing me to project
my aggressive behavior onto you.

At Rob's mansion,

he had a jungle-themed pool

and he actually called it
"the safari pool."

And it had a nice slide,
and the water changed colors--

it was blue, green, purple.

He told me to go
into the bathroom

and to change into my swimsuit.

And when I came back out,

I was just waiting by the pool,
and when he showed up,

he sat down
and he told me to, uh,

get up and start
walking for him.

"As if you're modeling."

So, I walk back and forth.

It was back and forth,
back and forth.

And he said, "Okay, now,
when you walk up, I want you

to remove a piece of your,
um, swimsuit."

And I looked at him and I sai,

"You want me to take
my swimsuit off?"

He said yes, he told me
not to ask questions,

to just do it.

So I said, okay, well,
this is R. Kelly

and he told me
to take my swimsuit off,

so that's what I'm going to do.

So I walked back and forth

and then I removed my top,
and he told me

to remove my bottoms.

And he grabbed me
and then we started kissing.

And he started fondling
my breasts.

And I stopped him and I said,
"I'm a virgin."

And he said,
"Well, that's perfect.

"That means I get to train you

and I get to take
your virginity."

And that's when he proceeded

to do oral sex on me.

And he told me to do
the same thing on him.

Just oral sex.

Right after,
Rob asked me my age.

And that's when I didn't tell
him my age,

I handed him my ID,
and he looked at it,

and that's when--
then I said I'm 16.

And he told me, "Okay,
what is that supposed to mean?"

He said to "continue telling
everybody that you're 19"

and to "act 21."

After R. Kelly was acquitted,

suddenly there's
this blank slate, right?

Which is so delusional for us

to kind of feel like,
"Oh, it's all good now."

And it's okay for me
as a journalist to say,

"Yeah, I want to go
to R. Kelly's house

"and hear him play
his new album.

I would love to do that."

And I did that.

And it was like
such a bizarre fortress.

Cavernous, like, mazes.

There was an indoor pool.

And then there was this
little tiny studio room

where he just sat down
at a piano

and sang like an angel.

And then I walk away

and I had to sort of write this
and-and be true to myself,

and I, and I basically
said that

I have a lot of feelings
about R. Kelly.

He was acquitted,
so I chose to leave

those feelings at the door.

I was awed by being in front of,
like, this incredible talent,

which is unde-undeniable.

And then I, when I walked
out of the door,

I picked all of those
sort of feelings back up.

And I think that
that's what a lot of fans

have been doing for many,
many years.

I'm sitting on the bed

and I'm just waiting for Rob.
He came in...

and he told me that it was time
for him to take my virginity.

We just, um, had sex, you know,
me bent over on the couch,

and I told him it was
a bit uncomfortable,

but I just went with it.

I was like, okay, whatever.
It was, um, painful.

So I'm like, okay, maybe that's
the way it's supposed to be.

It wasn't...
It wasn't extravagant.

I wasn't like,
"Oh, I lost my virginity."

Like, "This was so good."

It was just, it was just--

I guess I just lost
my virginity.

When I went to Rob's house,

I always felt
like the chosen one,

but then, after being there
for a while,

I started seeing other girls
around the house.

I'm in this room,

I'm sitting on the bed,
and I'm just, uh, waiting for,

uh, Rob to give
the next order, pretty much.

When he opened the door,
he walked in

and he saw me on my phone.

And that's when he explained

that I can't be
on my cell phone.

That started the, the rules.

I've known
R. Kelly for about 20 years.

I was around him a lot,

and that's when I started
to notice the system

of how girls are handled
and that it was real off.

They couldn't have communication
with other people.

They're not even allowed
to communicate with each other.

I had to give him
an update about everything.

Like, if I was about to brush
my teeth, I had to let Rob know.

If I wanted to take a shower,
he had to know.

And then, uh,
when guys came around,

I had to put my head down

or I had to turn
and face a wall.

When you disobey him
or you question him,

that's considered
breaking the rules.

Perfect example--
there was one time Rob and I

was talking about basketball.

He likes the Chicago Bulls.

And I said, you know,
I like the, the Cavaliers.

And he said,

"No, you like the Bulls."
I was like,

"I don't like the Bulls,"
and that was a problem.

Rob slapped me in my face.

And he told me,
"Well, guess what.

You're not eating."
And I said,

"Okay, this is a joke."
I thought he was just

playing around.

The no-eat list is somebody
who "disobeys Daddy."

That's when he decides
to starve you.

The longest I've gone
without food

at his house was three days.

I was surviving off water
and some peanuts that I had.

When a girl is confined

to the tour bus

or to a room, um,
there would always be

a possibility that she would go

more than a day or two
without food.

Can you describe
the physical abuse?

- I-I'm sorry.
- It's okay.

Abusers often use

isolation, so they'll have,
slowly over time,

isolated a girl or a woman
from her family.

And then say,
"There's nobody else for you.

Nobody else cares about you
but me. Where are you gonna go?"

I started to believe
that I was nothing without Rob.

I started to believe
that Rob was everything.

And he became...
he became everything for me.

Back in 2009, Rob pretty much
just sent me out on a hunt,

like, "Go find somebody,"
and I was like, "Dominique."

You know, I thought
Dominique was perfect.

Dominique and I had met
on MySpace.

We was fans of his.
We just...

bonded and we had
a really good friendship going

based on liking R. Kelly.

The girl,
Jerhonda, started coming over,

like on the weekends and then
during the week, and then...

You know,
they was like best friends.

She was

hanging out with her.

But I'm thinking
it's the movies,

I'm thinking it's bowling.

Things that teenagers do.
But it wasn't.

She had a girlfriend
that called me

and said,
"Do you know where Nikka's at?"

And I said,
"Yeah, she's with her friend."

She said,
"She's been lying to you.

Nikka has been seeing R. Kelly."

And I was like...
"Girl, what'd you say?"

I didn't see my friend
Dominique in the house,

but I knew Dominique was there

because we would both sneak
and be on our cell phones,

and that's when Dominique
was sharing that, you know,

Rob, any time he felt
like she was doing

something silly,
he would slap her.

And me and her used to

always try to meet up
in the house,

and it never worked out.

We were both on our cell phones
texting each other like, "Okay.

"I'm gonna call and ask to go
to the bathroom right now.

"You call and ask to go
to the bathroom.

"We're gonna meet
at this bathroom,

on this side of the house."

So I would be in, like,
one of those locations,

but we never, ever got
the chance to meet up.

I called the police.

And Olympia Fields Police
met us there.

And it was carloads

of young girls just going in.

So she came home.

I'm hollering, I was shouting.

I was saying,
"This is a grown man, he's sick.

You know he just got off
on some charges."

And, um, I said,

"Give me his phone number."

He answered.

I said, "R. Kelly, this is
Michelle Kramer.

"So I want you
to remember my name.

"Okay?

Stay the away
from my daughter."

According to the report,

he's keeping young women
in a cult-like atmosphere.

It's been two years now. We
still haven't seen our daughter.

He would beat me,
and I just started thinking

of ways to, like,

either end my life or end his.

I saw my daughter,
I hugged my daughter,

I kissed my daughter.

I done came too damn close.

Are you kidding me?

I'm gonna continue to fight.

That's what mothers do.