R. Kelly Is Found Guilty of All Counts and Faces Life in Prison Sept. 27, 2021
Mr. Kelly’s conviction marked a stunning fall for a man who was once one of the biggest names in R&B music. It came after the first Me Too-era trial in which most of the victims were Black women.
The singer was convicted of federal racketeering and sex trafficking charges for a decades-long scheme to recruit women and underage girls for sex. Once one of the biggest names in popular music, he could face decades in prison.
The conviction of R. Kelly on all nine counts against him came as a significant moment in the Me Too movement for both Black women and for the music industry, ushering in a sense that, finally, justice had been served.
But the verdict on Monday also prompted an obvious question: Women have said that the singer’s abuses began as early as the start of the 1990s — why did it take three decades for the singer to receive criminal punishment?
Here are a few possible answers:
The entertainer had an expansive network of enablers around him, federal prosecutors said, from his closest confidantes and employees to many in the music industry who knew of the concerns about his behavior but did not intervene.
The government drew attention to what has been described as the “settlement factory” that kept his accusers quiet, offering evidence of Mr. Kelly’s payments to women who made accusations in exchange for their silence.
And when that was not enough, Mr. Kelly “used his henchmen to lodge threats and exact revenge,” blackmailing women with nude photographs of themselves or embarrassing information, one prosecutor, Elizabeth Geddes, said in closing arguments.
Federal prosecutors also accused Mr. Kelly of paying witnesses to not cooperate with the authorities in the lead-up to his 2008 trial and acquittal. They said the singer let some witnesses know they could be “subject to physical harm” if they proceeded....
R. Kelly made his victims write letters exonerating him. Instead, they helped convict him. Sept. 27, 2021 By Emily Palmer
Much of the evidence that prosecutors used to convict R. Kelly came from the singer himself.
He obsessively collected message slips and letters written by the women he interacted with — some of them underage — according to Ryan Chabot, the lead federal investigator in the case. Mr. Chabot said he sifted through the evidence recovered from several searches of the singer’s Chicago apartment and storage facility.
Mr. Kelly kept some of the evidence in FedEx folders, with labels like “Old Messages,” and other pieces — like a seven-page, front-and-back, handwritten letter from a woman who testified for three days early in the trial — in protective sleeves in a locked safe.
Calling Mr. Kelly a “great man,” the woman wrote: “At the age of 17 I never had sex with Robert Kelly,” then proceeded to tick off a list of specific sex acts that she said she had not participated in with the R&B superstar.
Less than two years later, when the woman who had written the letter testified under a pseudonym, she said she had experienced coerced and recorded sexual encounters with the singer starting when she was 17. He hit her often, she said, and forced her to get an abortion....
- Alleged devil worshipper out on bond for 2016 Houston murder has killed again, police say
- Fashion Mogul Peter Nygard Indicted on Sex-Trafficking Charges
Alleged devil worshipper out on bond for 2016 Houston murder has killed again, police say Edward O’Neal Jr. was out on a $25,000 bond for the stabbing death of a Houston teen and now he's charged with another murder four years later. Author: Michelle Homer, Grace White December 7, 2020
HOUSTON — Edward O’Neal was 18 when he first made headlines in 2016 as an alleged devil worshipper charged with murder.
Now, O’Neal is in the news again because he’s accused of committing another murder while out on bond for the first case.
Houston police say O’Neal, now 23, shot and killed 39-year-old Derrick Mike late last month at an apartment complex on 9601 West Montgomery Road. The motive isn’t clear.
In the high-profile 2016 case, O’Neal was charged with stabbing 16-year-old Ryan Roberts to death and leaving his body in a wooded area. Christina Roberts told KHOU at the time that she thought her son was murdered as part of a satanic ritual....
Fashion Mogul Peter Nygard Indicted on Sex-Trafficking Charges
Mr. Nygard was arrested in Canada at the request of U.S. authorities. A federal indictment in New York City accused him of recruiting dozens of women and teenage girls for sex.
By Benjamin Weiser, Kim Barker, Catherine Porter and Grace Ashford
Dec. 15, 2020
Peter Nygard, the Canadian fashion executive, has been charged with sex trafficking, racketeering conspiracy and other crimes that involved dozens of women and teenage girls as victims in the United States, the Bahamas and Canada, federal prosecutors in Manhattan said on Tuesday.
Mr. Nygard, 79, used his company’s influence, its money and its employees to recruit adult and “minor-aged female victims” over a 25-year period for the sexual gratification of him and his associates, according to a nine-count federal indictment. He was arrested in Winnipeg, Manitoba, on Monday at the request of the United States under an extradition treaty, the U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan said. He is now being held in a Manitoba jail.
The indictment accused Mr. Nygard of targeting victims from disadvantaged economic backgrounds and, in some cases, with a history of abuse. Mr. Nygard sexually assaulted some, it said, while his associates assaulted or drugged others “to ensure their compliance with Nygard’s sexual demands.”
Jay Prober, the fashion mogul’s lawyer in Winnipeg, denied the charges against his client, saying he expected Mr. Nygard to be vindicated. His lawyer in New York, Elkan Abramowitz, declined to comment....
In February, The New York Times detailed how a long, ugly feud between Mr. Nygard and his neighbor in the Bahamas led to a lawsuit accusing Mr. Nygard of sexually assaulting minors there. In the article, dozens of women and former employees described how alleged victims were lured to Mr. Nygard’s home....
But The Times documented a pattern of complaints stretching back four decades, well before the feud, and showed how Mr. Nygard used his money and threats to silence his alleged victims.
The indictment features some of the same allegations as the lawsuit, which was filed in New York in February. More than 80 women have signed on as plaintiffs.
Dealbook: An examination of the major business and policy headlines and the power brokers who shape them....
A court affidavit by the Canadian authorities filed in Winnipeg said that Mr. Nygard’s victims included girls aged 14 to 17, and that his criminal conduct had affected hundreds. It described “techniques of psychological control” in which victims were “constantly surveilled” and had “little to no control over their ability to leave premises without Nygard’s permission.”
Federal authorities previously investigated Mr. Nygard on allegations of sex trafficking between 2015 and 2017 without filing any charges. The F.B.I. conducted two brief inquiries, while the Department of Homeland Security investigated him for nine months.
For decades, Mr. Nygard portrayed himself as a playboy, describing the young women and teenage girls he surrounded himself with as “the source of youth,” according to a video he produced about his attempts to fight aging. He dated celebrities like Anna Nicole Smith and fathered at least 10 children with eight women. Born in Finland, he grew up in Canada, launching his multinational fashion company, Nygard International, in Winnipeg more than 50 years ago....
The indictment charged that Mr. Nygard used the prospect of modeling and other fashion industry jobs to lure women and teenage girls. It said that he also he used company funds to pay for so-called pamper parties. There, employees told The Times, he recruited victims with free drinks, manicures and massages.
He forced dozens of victims to engage in “commercial sex,” defined in federal law as any sex act performed in exchange for something of value, and used threats and promises to grant or withhold modeling opportunities or financial support to maintain control, the indictment said....
SMART announces the 24th yearly Child/Ritual Abuse and Mind Control Conference
August 14 - 15, 2021 - Online Conference
EASTHAMPTON, Mass., Dec. 15, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- SMART announces its yearly conference. For safety reasons due to the Corona virus we have decided to have an online conference. Speakers at SMART's conferences have included Lynne Moss-Sharman, Hal Pepinsky, Neil Brick, Adah Sachs, Alison Miller, Randy Noblitt, Wendy Hoffman, Carol Rutz, Wanda Karriker, Thorsten Becker, deJoly LaBrier, Laurie Matthews and many others. https://ritualabuse.us/smart-conference/
In 1995, the SMART (Stop Mind control And Ritual abuse Today) newsletter started publishing a newsletter in Northampton, Massachusetts (now in Easthampton, Mass). In 1996, SMART began publishing on the Internet for the first time. SMART developed a website for survivors of ritual abuse and their helpers. SMART was one of the early educational resources for survivors of severe trauma, rape and abuse. In 1998, SMART began having weekend conferences for survivors and their helpers in Connecticut.
SMART has become one of the largest information and scientific resources on ritual abuse, cults, mind control, repressed memory, dissociation and dissociative identity disorder (formerly multiple personality disorder) on the Internet. https://ritualabuse.us/
The SMART newsletter has over 150 newsletters online at https://ritualabuse.us/newsletter/. SMART's newsletter has provided informational resources about many child abuse cases over the years. Their newsletter has covered major events about ritual abuse and mind control. Neil Brick continues to publish research and articles on child abuse, ritual abuse, mind control and dissociation. He continues to speak at conferences about ritual abuse and mind control. http://neilbrick.com
SMART's goal is to continue publishing educational resources to help survivors of child abuse, ritual abuse, their helpers and the general public learn more about the prevalence of ritual abuse and mind control in the United States and around the world. SMART hopes that child and ritual abuse will someday be eliminated in the world and children will be safe.
