All language subtitles for Surviving R. Kelly - 01x05 - All the Missing Girls.HDTV.x264-CRiMSON.English.C.updated.Addic7ed.com

My name is Jerhonda Pace,

and I was with Rob for six months

when I was 16 years old.

My name is Kitti Jones,

and I was with R. Kelly
for two and a half years.

Our daughter Azriel Clary

has been with R. Kelly
about three years now.

My name is Michelle W. Kramer.

My daughter Dominique
has been in his life for...

off and on... for nine years.

The jury is deliberating

in R. Kelly's child pornography case.

Everyone in the courtroom thought

he was gonna be found guilty.

Rob was very scared

of going to jail.

When they said "Not guilty,"

every reporter's face was like...

Robert, you know the turmoil you brought

into my kids' life, and for that,

you can go to hell.

After Robert's trial,

his friend sent me a message

and invited me to R. Kelly's party.

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

And I said, "I'm a virgin,"

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

Dominique and I had met on MySpace

based on liking R. Kelly.

She had a girlfriend
that called me and said,

"Nikka has been seeing R. Kelly".

I said, "Give me his phone number".

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

Stay the fuck away from my daughter".

At that time, R. Kelly wasn't at the top

of his game commercially,

but he still held a place

in the heart of people

in the media.

Certainly, fans.

And he was sort of a,
you know, a cult figure.

And for better or worse,
his transgressions,

in some ways, solidified that status.

R. Kelly has asked a lot
of us to forget about

Aaliyah, forget about the sex tape,

forget about the trial.

R. Kelly is innocent.

R. Kelly was
arrested in Polk back in 2002

on child porn charges,
though he was later acquitted.

It made him, you know,

feel that he can continue to get
away with those type of acts.

My only daughter.

I thought she was fine.

She went on prom. She got a job.

She was doing what she was
supposed to do as a teenager,

and... we end up moving

to the north side of Chicago.

I went to Kaplan College for,
um, medical billing and coding,

and she went for dental assistant.

She was doing her own thing,
and then all of a sudden,

she came home and said,

"I haven't been telling you the truth".

And I said, "What you mean?"

"I had still been seeing him.

And he asked me to move to Atlanta".

Now at this time,

she about 21, 22.

What can I do? She's grown.

I didn't want to lose
my daughter to him.

I had to make the hardest choice...

Go against her...

or give her my blessing.

All I could do was pray and hope one day

that she just wake up
and just come home.

I was with R. Kelly for six
months when I was 16 years old.

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

but I knew Dominique
was there because me and her

used to always try
to meet up in the house

and it never worked out.

Rob always kept us separated.

I would be isolated.

I felt like a prisoner.

It's, like, I didn't have anyone
to... talk to. It was just me.

I went into a depression.

I was mentally drained

'cause he would break
me down, then build me up,

then make me feel like shit again,

and do it all over again.

So it was... He would really
manipulate my mind.

The breaking point for me was when

Rob slapped me and he
choked me until I blacked out.

He was about six feet tall,

and I'm only five-one and a half,

and he lift me up and I was,
like, eye level with him,

and then I remember just blacking out

and I hit the floor.

That was the straw
that broke the camel's back,

and that's why I had to walk away.

After that incident happened between us,

I powered my phone off and I left,

and I never looked back.

Knowing that Dominique
is still in the house,

it's very painful to
know that she's still

experiencing all of those things

that she was experiencing
when I was there.

She just deserves better,

and I don't want her
to be there anymore.

She should have a better life.

I do know of someone who tried to help

one girl in particular
get out of the house.

There was a staff member
who tried to help Dominique.

It was a situation
where Dominique expressed

how she was being mistreated.

To Robert,

Dominique is, like, the rebellious one.

She stays in trouble to him.

She's a little tomboyish,
and Robert plays on that.

So he has molded her

into the boy he wants her to be.

So he's had her shave all her hair off,

and she carries herself like a boy.

He's even had her dress in boy clothes

and paint the-the beard
and the mustache on

to look like a boy.

So he treats her like his boy toy.

My name is Timothy Savage.

My daughter was off
in college at the time.

I haven't seen her since.

My daughter's severely brainwashed.

She's brainwashed to the point where...

she says anything
that he asks her to say.

Uh, she-she's not the same
Joycelyn that we knew.

Stockholm syndrome, that's what
my daughter has right now.

We both was blindsided.

We didn't know it,
but the storm was coming.

It was never for my daughter

to-to get in touch
with this man, not one time,

without me or my wife being present.

Joycelyn was a... She was kind of shy,

you know, she was a loner,
she liked to stay to herself.

But when it came on
to music or modeling,

she turned on like a flash,
like a butterfly.

At the early ages of life, she
was always wanting to do this.

One night, I got off from wor,

she came downstairs and she was singing.

I said, "Is that Joycelyn?"

And I said, "She could sing".

This was probably about ten years old.

When we met Mr. Kelly,
we went in strictly

for a professional relationship.

I think that R. Kelly could've helped

put my daughter in the right position

to help her make her a star

because he had a lot of influences

with the record labels
and... he's created

big hits with a lot of people.

I think it was back in 2008,

we did hear some type of, you know,

allegations that he had...
a trial that was going on,

but... the courts found him
not guilty at that time,

so we didn't think nothing else of it.

December, fall of 2016,

she had told us that

she studied, that she, you
know, passed all her exams,

and she was looking forward
to the next semester.

We felt like we started to disconnect

in... 2016,

late fall.

I was going to... register Joycelyn

for the... next semester,
and I needed to talk to her.

I wasn't able to get
in touch with my daughter

for three days straight,

but I was able to track down her...

one of her roommates that
she was really close with,

and this particular roommate

said that Joycelyn hadn't been
at the dorm for a few days.

So we end up... We said,
"Hey, something is going on.

This a red flag". And then we got a call

from her, and she told us
that she was with R. Kelly.

We was like, "What
are you doing? You're in,

"you're in college.
We had this discussion.

"I thought you was headed
in the direction

that you want to go in".

And she told me that she didn't know

what she wanted to do at that point.

Weeks went by

with no answers. It was
like a dead, silence tone

when I'd call.

It has been over almost two years now,

and we still haven't seen our daughter.

When the Savages first came out

talking about Joycelyn,
R. Kelly had meetings

to strategize to fix the situation.

So the first thing was to put

Joycelyn in front of the camera on TMZ,

which is something he
ordinarily would not have done,

but because they said
that Joycelyn was being held

against her will and all of that stuff,

he had to clean it up.

You are not being
held against your will?

Oh, n-no. Not at all.

Never been feeling hostage
or anything like that,

in that nature, never.

As far as the video

that Joycelyn Savage made,

I would say that it was scripted

because Robert does
not allow those girls

to say anything that he
has not told them to say.

Yeah, you see shadows in the background,

showing someone
saying, "Cut," on her shirt.

Are you free to go from where you are?

No... I won't speak on that as well.

It made me feel horrible

that you see somebody
doing this in a shadow

going in the background.

That's a control, like she's locked up

in a jail cell.

I really think it hit me
when I, when I saw her face

on, you know, TMZ.

I could tell that she was
not the same Joycelyn

who was raised up to be.

How can he just sit here
and ruin these little girls?

Like, you-you can't...

Like, I feel like he has no heart.

When the ball started
rolling down the hill again

for R. Kelly,

there was a piece in BuzzFeed,

there was something in The New Yorker.

The story had hit the mainstream
in a new way.

BuzzFeed has published
an explosive report

detailing accusations
against artist R. Kelly.

According to the report,

he's keeping a household of young women

in a cult-like atmosphere.

The accusations coming
from a nine-month-long

investigative report.

The article quickly becoming

one of the top
trending items on social media.

From the time that the Savages came,

shows started to get canceled.

He has lost money from his bookings,

so the stories, they have

affected his livelihood,
and he knows that.

I want everybody
around the world to know,

ain't no tours canceled,
man, all right?

Despite what you hear,
don't believe the hype.

I haven't canceled not one show.

You stand by your words, you know,

R. Kelly's not holding any women hostage

or he doesn't have a sex cult or...?

Um, no. None of that is true.
None of that is true.

All of that is false accusations.

You know, people talk
all the time, you know.

It's just rumors.

Yeah, I'm out here in L.A.,
you know, just vacationing,

and he's in Chicago.

Oh, cool. You're doing your
own thing right now.

Mm-hmm. Yeah. Doing my own thing.

When I saw the TMZ video,

I looked over and it was
my daughter Dominique.

She was very unrecognizable

because how her hair was and she was all

tattooed up.

So I could see they
was in Beverly Hills,

and I just put two and two together

that that's probably
where she's staying.

So I spoke with the producers,

because I was already coming

to L.A. to do the documentary.

And so I convinced them to...

take me to Beverly Hills

to locate my daughter.

What are you doing right now?

I'm just looking out the window.

She might be walking down the street.

You can never replace a mother.

Never.

When they sick, we take care of them,

We ain't never know that.

That's a mother.

Not sayin' fathers don't do it.

But this one... I did all that.

So you can never replace that.

One of the things she told me,
she told me never to give up.

So me coming to L.A.

and not trying to even
try to find her...

I'm not giving up.

I'm not.

After the trial,

R. Kelly has had huge performances...

particularly, again, in black spaces.

He's had the Soul Train Music
Award tribute to Sam Cooke.

The 2010 performance,

the Epic soul extravaganza,

is definitely his attempt to come back.

He was making, also, a plea

to black adults.

That's why I think he
did the '50s thing.

When I watched it, I said,

"This is an incredibly
calculated performance".

And the messaging of it
is really interesting

in light of where he was
in his career, and that is,

"I'm not being a youthful pop star.

"I'm your guy.

I'm part of everything you are".

He dropped Love Letter.

And that record didn't do

very well, either. It did
better than Untitled,

but when you're looking at,
like, the breadth of his work,

it paled in comparison.

And still... He's still, you
know, working in the industry.

I mean, R. Kelly wrote most of the songs

for the Sparkle soundtrack.

He did a song for Whitney Houston,

"I Look to You,"

which did fairly well for her.

R. Kelly, with his... mmm... genius,

wrote this song for me many years ago.

Spiritually, it... connected
with me, very much.

By the time Whitney Houston
dies, you know,

his reputation is pretty bad.

We all know about the sex tapes.

A lot of the stuff about the
abuse of women is coming out.

It's been pretty consistent.

So for him-him to even be

at Whitney's funeral is kind of like...

I'm sure some people
were very upset about that.

He seems nervous when
he gets up there, because...

Maybe he's even aware that...
the enormity of what he's doing

and how potentially inappropriate it is.

And how many of those people are
judging him in that audience.

♪ I look to you... ♪

And yet he wins the crowd, because of

the purity of his emotion.

And you see the pastors,

who stand up during the song

to sort of accept his testimony.

And it's very powerful.

We love you, Whitney.

Rest in peace.

When he has these moments,

it elevates him to a status
in our community

that-that really is protected.

Our society tends to compartmentalize

the things we don't want to look at

and magnifies and glorifies
the things that we do.

For example, if an individual
is providing something

to the society...

as music, cinema, politics...

we're more likely

to compartmentalize
their negative behavior

and minimize it,

as a way of accepting
what they are contributing.

We don't want to let go of R. Kelly

because it means let going of
all of that catalogue of music

and the memories that go along with it.

Whether you sang "I Believe
I Can Fly" at your graduation

or you "Stepped in the Name
of Love" at your wedding,

people don't want to let that go.

His music is black music.

It crosses over, but he
targets the black people.

And as a people, we forgive.

And-and keep forgiving you.

That's the church in us.

But now it's like,

we have gone from stories

that could be dismissed...

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

...to stories about women

who were being kept from their parents.

Kind of looks like the shit over there.

- Where?
- Right...

Um...

All right. Let's go.

In my heart, I know she's there.

And... I know she's there.

My plan is just to go into the hotel

and just, basically...
it's Mother's Day weekend...

and say, "Can you have her come
down? There's a package here".

They said no, there wasn't
no Gardner there.

But I didn't get to L.A.
not to find my daughter.

Could I ask you...

could I ask you a question?

So I saw this black guy outside,

like maybe a doorman or something,

and I described Dominique to him.

And he said, "Try the
one across the street".

And I did not know it was
a whole nother hotel

of the same name across the street.

Oh! I got company.

All right, how are you guys?

Back in 2011,

I was a radio DJ in Dallas.

Um... and I had met
R. Kelly at an after-party

while he was on the Love Letter Tour.

I proceeded to introduce myself

and let him know that I was
from the radio station.

He proceeded to ask me how old I was.

Told him I was in my 30s,

and he was shocked.

He just kind of
sized me up a little bit,

from head to toe, like,
what I looked like.

And we were just kind of

shaking hands really slow

and that's when he
slipped me the phone number.

Long distance was a hard
thing for both of us, so...

I quit my job

and moved to Chicago.

I didn't just pack up and leave

just because I loved him,
it was a two-way thing.

Rob absolutely told me that
he loved me, all the time.

I was visiting Dallas
and a friend of mine said,

"Um, you know, have you ever watched

the sex tape?"

And I was furious with her

and I felt disrespected, because...

at this point, this is my boyfriend.

Not only that, I just felt like
if you have respect for me

you wouldn't be
bringing up something that

people are gonna always
make fun of him over.

I'm-I'm offended as well.

But my curiosity

just kind of got the best of me

and I googled it.

And...

...when I saw the images,

um...

The images were...

...the same girl that
he had introduced me to,

um...

a couple weeks before.

I knew ex... I knew immediately
it was the same woman.

Um...

I just didn't know how to feel.

I guess I felt like I
was tricked into something.

All at the same time.

It was just...

a bunch of emotions
coming over me, like,

am I really with someone that did this?

I called him.

And... I was very upset.

He could hear me crying and I said,

"My friend sent me the tape,"
or something like that.

I didn't want him to know
that I went looking for it,

so I carefully worded it

so he didn't think that

I went looking for a tape.

The tape that he went to trial for.

He just began, like,

saying things to me

that I'd never heard before.

Like, "Bitch, don't ever accuse me

of some shit like that ever again".

And "Who are you listening to?

"Get your ass back.

I'm fucking you up". Things like that.

And I was just...

scared.

He beat me in the car when I got back.

That was the first time
he was very physical with me.

Not only do I need
to save face for myself,

I need to protect him, too,

because now I loved him, I love him.

And now he knows
that I know this secret.

And I need him to understand
that I'm not gonna tell anybody.

I felt trapped.

On the inside, I was like,

"Who am I dealing with?"

Like, who is this person
that I'm lying down with?

Is he doing this secretly?

You know?

And I'm of age. Am I just a beard?

I didn't know.

I just...

I just knew that

when we were the car
and he was lashing out at me

and-and slapping me repeatedly,

and I just kept telling him I was sorry

and that I... I wasn't
accusing him of anything

and that I didn't believe it.

At this point, there's no turning back.

And I just... I wanted
to make it work by all means.

But...

he would beat me

when he was upset with me.

There's a period that...

He calls it "training you".

He used those words with
me plenty of times.

I didn't understand

that training me
was, like, okay, let me...

let me put this out
here and see if she...

is comfortable with that.

You definitely had to ask
to go to the restroom.

Stand up when he walks in the room.

You had to ask for your food.

I was not allowed, by Rob,
to watch TV back then.

Dance Moms was a show
that he would look at,

ironically, with little girls
dancing or whatever.

But I never saw any reality shows on VH1

or anything that was negative

or might have anything that would,

I guess, pertain to him

or put any negative thoughts.

The perpetrator might

isolate an individual.

It's easier for a perpetrator
to abuse...

sexually, physically,
financially, emotionally

abuse the individual

when that individual is
separated from their family,

when that individual
doesn't have resources.

He or she can...

essentially do whatever he or
she wants to that individual.

The... the victim often believes

"I have nothing else".

Yeah, they had a lot of rules

that they had us abide by.

What does it mean to be
in trouble with Rob,

for one of the girls?

Being in trouble with Rob

would mean being confined to a room

for several days.

Being confined on the tour bus

for several days.

Having their devices taken.

Cell phones taken away.

And even being spanked.

Being on punishment could be...

either you're not getting food

or you took a beating

and he's not talking to you.

It was just a...

a- a-a
molding and shaping me

into this person

and then, once I realize

this is what it's become,

it's too late and I'm in it.

I'm sorry.

I'm sorry.

Because when you talk about it,

you realize how sick
and twisted it really was.

And when I first met those girls...

When I first met those girls,

I judged them, not him.

My first response to myself was,

"These bitches are crazy,"

because I saw them jump up and kiss him,

one behind the other,

and I knew what was
going on behind closed doors

as far as them not being able
to eat when they wanted to,

not being able to move around.

Until I started to not
just look at the situation,

but I started to also listen
to what he would say

to make them act that way.

The summer of 2012,

he was putting together
The Single Ladies Tour.

I was just kind of at
my wit's end to leave,

and... he kind of reeled me
back in by asking me to go

be the cage girl.

It made me feel special
that, "Okay, this is us

working on the relationship,"

some of the promises that
he made... before, you know,

me even moving or-or making
up my mind to move.

So, we practiced that.

And the lights were gonna go dim,

and then the spotlight would be on me

with him on his knees singing to me,

and then he opens my legs
and goes down on me

while I'm in the seats.

He did this 30 years ago.

He was on stage at the Essence Festival.

Same act, with the bed,
grabbing his crotch,

all of that... simulating sex.

He hasn't changed.

We would run up to the stage together,

and then one of the guys would hand me

a fake contract, and then I
would be looking at it like,

"Oh, my God, I'm about
to sign this to let him

do what he wants with me".

And I just remember him sayin,

"This is what I'm gonna
have you do when we get home.

"Make up a contract

so I can protect myself".

He does make

the girls write statements
with false accusations

against themselves.

Either saying that
they've stole something from him,

or that their parents have
stole something from him,

or even that the parents
tried to bribe him,

or something of that sort.

I would call the false statements

some type of insurance.

And I would even say, in addition
to the statements,

the fact that he videos
everything that they do

when they are being sexual with him,

I see the videos as being something

that he can hold against them
or hold over their heads.

The tour ended middle of December

of 2012.

He introduced me

sometime in February, and my life

just got turned upside down after that.

Sexually, it was always
one or two girls.

At the most, it was three.

I just had to block it
all out, you know?

Because the sexual part
of it is just so humiliating

and degrading, and it makes you feel...

like, if you say no, like, what
the consequences are gonna be.

He was preparing for the
Black Panties album, mainly.

And my last straw

was being starved.

I think I was going on day three.

I hadn't eaten the whole day,

and I just remember glancing over at him

and just making, like, a subtle
movement, and he said,

"Don't stare at me while I effing eat".

And I said, "I'm not staring at you".

Like, I had no fear of him anymore.

It was just starting to build up,

and I just started
thinking of ways to, like,

either end my life or end his.

It's difficult for people
who aren't in these contexts

to understand. "Well,
why wouldn't she just leave?

Why wouldn't she just
go eat something?"

But again, it's been a process over time

where this relationship is
the most important relationship

in her life.

She won't do anything
to risk that relationship

and attention that
she'll get from that person.

So it can be quite powerful.

The next day,

um, even though

all this had built up for me to leave,

and I felt strong when it came
to me getting to the airport...

...I didn't want to go.

Um...

I was afraid of what I was gonna
have to face when I got home.

Because I was so scared

of what people were gonna say and think,

and how they were gonna
judge me and, like,

"What happened? Why are you back?"

The number of times

a domestic violence... survivor leaves

is between seven and ten times

before they permanently leave.

And that is because

of the power and control
that the abuser has.

So when I got to the airport,

it was so scary.

I remember trying to call him, and text,

and I kept telling myself,

"If he picks the
phone up, I'm going back,"

because I wasn't ready
like I thought I was.

He never picked it up.

I didn't get to be a mother

all this long not to be a detective.

Yes, please.

The hotel manager, he was like,

"Um, I'm-a take you to her room".

I was like, "Oh, my God".

So, I was getting nervous.

I can't e... I don't have no words,

'cause it's just overwhelming.

Baby. Oh...

Okay. Yeah, we good. Thank you.

Thank you.

No, you made this the
best Mother's Day ever.

You don't understand.

You don't understand.

Oh, my God.

I found her.

I found my baby. God is real.

Thank you, God.

Any man that don't let their mother

see their child, the child
see their mother,

and she's still living,
you ain't got no heart.

I saw my daughter.

I hugged my daughter,
I kissed my daughter.

And she said that your daughter
was in the room.

Things that can support girls

and women getting away
from abusive situations...

one is time, one is reminding the girl

that she has her own identity,

that she's cared for, that she's loved.

You've seen parents put out
media blasts in different ways,

reminding the girls that they're loved,

and the hope is that something
will get through, right?

Or that there may be
a period where a girl

will be questioning her current
situation, may reach out,

may do a Google search
and find a YouTube video

of a-a message from her parent.

Hold on, hold on.

Okay.

Okay. Oh, she want to talk to me.

I got to go. Bye.

My daughter want to talk to me. Bye.

Hello?

Hey. Don't cry, don't cry.

Don't, don't, don't cry, okay?

Feel like she was happy to see you?

She couldn't show no emotion, probably.

But on the phone, I wish I could've

put it on speaker.

Don't cry.

Please just come home.

She cried like...

like a little girl
just hurting for her mommy.

And I said, "Baby, I... uh,
can I come back, please?"

And she said, "Yes, Mama,
come back at 6:00".

- Thank you.
- You're welcome.

Our daughter met R. Kelly
at a concert in Orlando

that... we all went to,

celebrating for my husband's birthday.

He actually pulled her
out the crowd onstage.

Azriel was 17.

We had no idea that
she was going through

some personal things,
I guess, in her life.

You know... that...

♪ Oh, say can you see... ♪

She's a remarkable singer,

and she had been singing since
she was about five or six,

but singing kind of,
like, professionally

since she was about eight.

She's been in so many
different contests,

shows, won so many awards.

That was her thing.

She wanted to be

a famous singer.

She had a bubbly personality,

very fun, like, full of life young lady.

When R. Kelly picked my daughter

to go up onstage,

they danced, and it was a bunch

of young ladies he picked out.

Everybody knew R. Kelly's
background with females.

You know, you kind of
suppressed the thought.

He's never been found guilty
on any of the charges, so...

I mean, if you look at it, you
know, from a legal standpoint,

you think, okay, maybe it wasn't
any truth or validity to it.

Because people make accusations
on people all the time.

It doesn't mean it's actually true.

I felt as though, you know,
yeah, I know his background,

but my daughter gonna be different.

I'm right here with her,
her mom's right here with her.

So, I was... You know,
me being a-a father,

a protective father,

I'm-I'm-I'm okay with
it 'cause I don't think

none of this could happen to me.

Then the way they had to
exit was through the back.

So, during that time, we was
waiting and waiting and waiting,

and kind of getting a little nervous.

Went to the corner where the VIP was,

and then that's where she exited at,

from the back side of the stage.

They told us that he asked
her to hear her sing.

He liked it, so he gave her
a number to contact him.

Azriel was in the 11th grade.

We didn't find out right away,

but she was secretly, I guess,
calling him and texting him,

and had been
talking to him on the phone.

One day, the time that she's
supposed to be at home,

I call, and she wasn't home yet.

Finally, we get a phone call.

She finally called me and said,
"Oh, I'm at a hotel in Kissimmee

meeting with R. Kelly".

How and why, like, did this happen?

Like, I was really shocked.

One day, we get a phone call.

She finally called me and said,
"Oh, I'm at a hotel in Kissimmee

meeting with R. Kelly".

And the first thing I thought was,

I have to leave work,
like, right now, immediately.

I called my husband, and
he was at work, and he said,

"I'm on my way, too". He left work.

That's a grown man,

and I've heard of the allegations

in the past about him.

So it kind of, kind of freaked me out

because I'm thinking she's never
done anything without us.

Why would R. Kelly, as a man,

want to meet our daughter by herself?

Why would she even go
without one of us, you know?

We told her from the beginning,
when she got it,

we don't want you
around him never by yourself.

You always got to be with one of us.

As I get to the hotel, I see her car.

And then I see his tour bus,
so I know she was at the hotel.

So I was kind of relieved that,
no, okay, she is here.

But we go inside the hotel,

asking for R. Kelly room.

They were saying there
was no such guest there.

And we're like, "Okay, we
know there's a guest there

"'cause his tour bus is outside,
my daughter car is out there,

"and, you know, we need
our daughter to come down.

She's a minor".

So, they got the head
of security to come and...

'Cause we were actually
going through the building

and knocking on doors.

They told us we couldn't do that.

So, basically, he came back and said,

"Yes, we do have him here.

"Um, we're trying to find out
what room, locate your daughter.

"And could you be patient
and just let us,

you know, find out what was going on?"

Because, apparently, he had, like,

two floors, or something, of rooms.

And she was with R. Kelly
in the room, alone.

She was auditioning,
is the word that was used.

She was auditioning for him.

And so we said no, no, no, no.

That... No. She needs to come down,

or he needs to come down, or whatever.

Well, eventually, Azriel came down.

He never came down.

She went into the whole spiel...
hey, we messin' it up.

- "It was a real interview".
- She was upset.

"And why would you come down?

"Y'all gonna mess up my shot.

"You know, this-this is my chance.

"This is what we all working for.

You know, this is my career.
Y'all supposed to back me".

And I'm like, you know what,
maybe it was innocent.

You know, and maybe it was an interview,

but she should've called us.

I believe that R. Kelly thinks
that he's invincible.

He was acquitted.

What makes any of us think that he will

ever be touched?

So, I think that he believes
that he has a pass for life,

because no one's been able
to touch him at all.

We're riding home.

Azriel's basically saying how

R. Kelly is, like, a musical genius,

and he could possibly help her
move into the next level.

And she went home and researched and...

She went home and
researched him and all his music.

Saw all the people he worked with

and all that.

All the songwriters,
like, all the songs he wrote

for, you know, people he wrote for.

And so she was just, like,
amped, she was excited.

She thought this was her break.

We were like, "You need to
get R. Kelly on the phone".

And so then we had a
conversation with him

that, first, we were not happy
with what just had took place.

And that should not have transpired

without one of her parents
being present.

And I asked him, you know,

"Is this how you conduct business?"

He was like, "No". He was leaving.

You know, he thought it was okay.

Azriel had assured that, you know,

it wouldn't be a problem
if she came over

and did the interview now,

and we were supposed
to meet 'em over there.

We told her, like, basically,

for you to do anything else with him,

she cannot be with him by herself.

Honestly, I didn't think
it was a good fit.

I didn't want to have any part of it,

but Azriel actually pressed us.

She made her little threats
about if we didn't, you know,

let her do this, what she would do.

And now, looking back at it,

he was very manipulative, so...

It was... it was a plot. It was his...

That's the strategy he did.

I'm about to go meet my daughter.

She said go at 6:00,

but I'm going to go now
because I just need to know.

I'm just anxious, and I just
can't wait till no 6:00.

How you feeling right now?

Nervous all over again,

like five or six hours ago
when we first went to the door.

But... God didn't lead me
here and then take it away.

I came too close.

Yes, can I have

Dominique Gardner's room, please?

Hello?

- Hey.
- Hey.

I came back to the hotel, and they said

you called the police on me.

I knew it wasn't you.

So, what you want to do?

'Cause, I mean, they said
the police came and everything.

And they said somebody keep calling.

He could be lying. I don't know.

But she didn't see me.

She hung up.

Fuck.

I don't want to get ugly,

but I ain't leaving this damn hotel.

I done came too damn close.

I'm this far. Are you kidding me?

I went to the bathroom, I waited
about ten or 15 minutes.

She came in with a book
bag, a wifebeater,

some shorts, and some
flip-flops with some socks on

and a backpack, and that's all she had.

And we ran out of there like
the master was coming for us.

- It's okay.
- Okay.

Gabe said he loves you so much. Okay.

You can ride in here,
but turn the camera off.

No, I don't... she don't want that.

No, tell 'em to take...
Keep that camera over there.

All right, get your bag.

Okay. Okay, baby.

Okay.

You brave, okay. Look at me.

Look at me. You brave. You so brave.

You're so beautiful.

This is God, you know that, right?

You know that, right?
Look at me, look at me.

You know that was God.
You was... You didn't even think

I was coming for
you, did you? Did you?

You're so happy. I'm happy for you.

Look, this the best...

I know. I love you, too.

I know, baby, I know.

But you did good, baby.

The best feeling.

Like having a newborn baby,

and the doctor giving you your baby...

that you carried for nine months.

There's three drugs out there...

crack, heroin, and R. Kelly.

And she was trying to fight that drug.

She have seen some stuff.

She done did some stuff.

And I believe that he have
said some things to even

maybe try to come harm to her family,

or all the girls' family.

She don't understand
how many people love her.

But his sick ass always make them think

that nobody loves you but him.

And... I told her

wasn't nothing gonna ever happen to her.

And I meant that.