All language subtitles for Surviving.R.Kelly.S02E02.WEBRip.x264-ION10.English

I was the first girl.

And nobody believed me.

And after that,
it continued to happen

again and again

and again.

Whoever's
acting like they didn't know

is lying.

15, 13...

Anything under 18 is disgusting.

When you're that young...

...you get involved
with someone.

And you think that...

you're "special."

We're grown girls,

but we're still little girls
that cry silently.

I decided to sit on the row

and be brave and watch it
with the rest of the survivors.

And the producers
and some security personnel

tell us that we have to evacuate
immediately.

Somebody had called in

- a gun threat.
- And that's when I knew,

like, something powerful
is in this documentary,

and someone's trying
to make sure it's not ever seen.

Surviving R. Kelly

was trending at number one
on Twitter.

I don't think it's appropriate
for anyone to be playing

R. Kelly songs anymore.
I think he's canceled.

When you start messing
with somebody's money,

- crazy jumps out.
- Robert Kelly's

people began to expose

women one by one.

There was a Facebook page

full of my nude pictures.

They just waiting
to get that news

and say,
"Survivor Asante McGee is dead

- from suicide."
- I am aware

of Surviving Lies.

And I definitely support that.

My parents. I felt like
an embarrassment to them.

I think I'm just dealing
with a lot right now of after.

R. Kelly turned himself in

to Chicago police Friday night.

He is being charged
with ten counts

of felony sexual abuse.

We are in the process

of investigating

the attorneys,
the agents and the managers

that enabled
this course of conduct.

Man, how complicit
we all have been.

There's a weird
aspect of show business

that the people who make it,
once we're through that door,

it's like we have
to close ranks.

So often it's like, "Why?

"How did this happen?
How could this happen?

"You're telling me
that this many people knew this?

"You're telling me that

"he married Aaliyah
and, you know,

"that this tape was circulating

in barbershops and on...
Like, how? How?"

This doesn't happen
without a symphony

of people and industries
and organizations

and corporations
enabling this behavior.

The story here is how did he

get away with this for 30 years?

It should have ended
with Tiffany Hawkins.

Victim number one.
Patient zero.

The first girl who sued Kelly

for sexual contact that started
when she was 15 in 1991.

I was born and
raised in Chicago.

I always knew I wanted to sing.

It was an outlet for me.

You know, I was very shy,
but, you know,

when I was singing,
I was somebody different.

And I thought
that music was my destiny.

I sang in church.
That's where I started.

And even in grammar school,

I was in the choir
the whole time.

Um, into high school.

I saw myself being a singer

like Whitney Houston.

When I got to high school,

I just went to Ms. McLin.

Ms. McLin was
my music instructor.

She said to me, "You remind me
of Whitney Houston."

She said,
"You even look like her."

And so she took me on

and started to give me
singing lessons.

I pretty much was

on the street
more than I was at home.

I was staying out late.

Um, I had no

sense of direction.

Me and my friends
were-were running the streets.

That's what we did.

We were all running
from different challenges.

We all had
our own challenges at home.

Either rejection, abuse

or just not really feeling
like you fit in.

My mother and I had some tension
in our relationship.

She had a boyfriend

that was abusive.

To me and...

My mother

knew that he was

physically abusive, and so...

I did feel like

she did not protect us

the way that I feel like

I would protect my daughter.

So I was angry with her
for that.

And that's where I was at
when I met Robert.

I met him in Hyde Park.

A friend of mine and I
were on a bus,

and we saw his car,
and we saw him.

And we got off the bus

and ran over to his car
because we wanted to meet him.

I was a sophomore in high school
at the time.

I was an aspiring singer.

I figured, "My God.

I want to meet R. Kelly.
I want him to hear me sing."

R. Kelly is a huge star.

He showed interest in us,
you know?

I mean, we're-we're young girls,
and here R. Kelly is,

like, standing there talking
to us. Him and his friend.

The conversation ended with,
"I'm gonna give you my address.

"Why don't you bring some
of your friends to my apartment.

We'll see how it goes."

The first time I sang
for Robert...

I started singing

a Mariah Carey song,

and I hit a high note,

and Robert fell
out of his chair.

And I was like,
"So, is that a good thing?"

And his friend Tory said,

"That's a great thing."

For the first several months,

um, my relationship with Robert

was like
a brother-sister relationship.

Robert paraded Tiffany around

as his "best friend,

little sister."

And he adored her.

He absolutely adored her.

Robert and I talked
about, um, my life at home.

The troubles and pressures
of being a young girl

and, you know, growing up
in the neighborhood.

And he was a great listener,

and he had a way

to make you feel like
you could beat the odds.

He made me feel like
I could do anything.

I could do anything.
I could be anything.

And he was gonna be the person
to help make that happen

for me.

I spent a lot of time
with Robert.

Me, Jovante

and another friend of ours
were with Robert

pretty much on a daily basis.

He made sure
that I had a place to stay

and food to eat
and clothes on my back.

So that-that's how that went.

During that period
in the, um, early '90s,

you would see multiple girls
in the studio.

And I didn't suspect
any of the younger girls,

like Tiffany and Jovante,

were being sexually active
with Robert.

Now, they were around.
They were around late.

This is true.

Sometimes would spend the night
at the studio.

I never really looked
at Tiffany's age,

um, because she ran
with a pack of girls,

and they did what
they wanted to do all night.

They would stay out all night.

They would, come early.

They would do what they wanted.

She's a girl who wanted to sing,

and she had incredible talent.

Kelly promised her a career.

That's-that's every
young aspiring musician's dream.

And...

it instead was
this sick sexual relationship

where he is preying on her
at age 15

and having her connect him

to other 15-year-old friends.

It's-it's...

It sounds like
the Manson family.

Robert did

ask me to bring...
friends with me,

and I did bring friends with me.

Um...

They always wound up having sex.

Always.
It always ended up that way.

The first time I met

with Robert
after getting his phone number,

I gathered some of my friends,

and we went to his apartment.

It was Robert. There were...

I think about three
of his friends.

We were all talking, laughing.

You know, everybody had fun.

There was a-a lot of laughs,
a lot of joking.

There was a lot of fun.

And...

my friends were all
in his bedroom.

So, I would

go in and out of the room,

and every time I went in there,

he was having sex with someone.

It turned into a whole orgy.

Every girl I brought

was between the age
of 14 and 16.

For a 25-year-old to be
having sex with a 14-year-old,

that was not something
that was normal for me.

It's not something
that I had seen.

This was a star. So, for me,

I thought
maybe this was different.

Maybe this is just how it goes.

As she said to me
when we finally spoke,

"He used to call me
the cable girl."

And I said, "I-I don't get it."

She says, "I hooked him up.

"I introduced him to six
of my other friends who were 15,

"and they all had sex with Kelly

before I ever slept with him."

When you...

You're thinking,
"Go get me some girls."

I mean, we weren't looking
for underage women.

In our minds,
we were just looking for girls.

He had figured a way in,

and we didn't even know it.

Using girls
to recruit other girls

may work to make the predator
feel less guilty

because somebody else
is helping.

Um, feel less culpable.

A little bit more distance

from the more nefarious aspect
of what's happening.

And in subtle ways,

it's also effective

'cause a predator
then is saying,

"Let's invite more people
to this party.

Aren't we having fun?"

Robert took advantage

of a lot of my friends.

Um, Ebony...

...I felt the worst about.

About a month in

after meeting Rob,

there was a day that we were
at his, um, house

on 9th and Wabash.

Rob had grabbed me by the hand,

and he brought me
out of the room.

He started kissing on my neck

and fondling me.

And we had sex.

I was 14 or 15.

When we think

about sexual encounters,

when adults, um,
are attempting to engage

in sexual, relationships
with adolescents,

there's pressure.

Um, there's an adult
that's hav...

that has a very strong opinion
one way.

Our brains don't stop developing
until our mid-20s.

So what that means
is adolescents have

an underdeveloped

decision-making capacity.

We were in the same room
that we were always sitting in,

and he...

just openly bent a-a girl over

and proceeded
to have sex with her.

And with that, me seeing that...

That... It-it hurt my feelings.

But when you're that young...

You get involved with someone...

And you think that...

you're "special."

To see that it was just so easy
to go from me

to another person...

And then in front of me.

I actually didn't even know
this impacted me...

like this.

Throughout all the years.

Even when speaking
about it recently,

like it was nothing.

It was nothing to me.

But I guess it is.
I guess it still is.

I felt really, really bad,

and-and to this day,
I feel really bad about that.

So...

Pause, please.

I need some water.

Yeah, break.

e two.

The first time

I had a sexual encounter
with Robert,

it was in a very minor way.

I remember one time
I came into the room,

and he asked me
to take my shirt off,

and... he fondled my breasts

while he was having sex
with somebody else.

I mean,
I was never okay with it,

but I felt like,

at least I don't have
to have sex with him.

But I always felt like,

you can't be enjoying this

because I'm not,

and it's got to be obvious
that I'm not,

so why-why are we doing it?

But he didn't care.

I'm assuming that
someone said something about

all the young girls being around

because we went from,
"Bring your friends,

bring some of your friends."

Every time,
"Bring some of your friends."

We went from that to,
"Nobody can come."

He didn't tell me why,

but all of a sudden,

it's-it's just me now.

It's just me.

So there's no one else

to have sex with Robert
other than me.

The first step in the process

of victimization
is often locating

and identifying a target,
a victim.

And often,
what can make it easier is

if you are less connected
to family and friends,

if you are more isolated
in your life,

with less social supports.

My sexual relationship

with Robert began

several months
after meeting him.

When it was just him and me...

We went from this...

brother-sister,
tight-knit relationship to

more of a sexual relationship,

and... it was weird for me.

He would have sex
with multiple friends

and have Tiffany watch.

Then he would have Tiffany
participate.

Then it was just him
and Tiffany.

And she wanted to do whatever
she needed to do to be with him.

And so, when he insisted on
having sex with her, she did.

And then it became
a regular thing,

and she eventually
lived with him,

and was told to cut off contact

with other people,
which she did.

So, it was an ev...
an evolution of, of...

of pedophilia.

If a 15-year-old is

trading sex for a favor,

whether it be a career,
whether it be money,

is not making
a strong or wise decision.

They do not understand

where this type of behavior
can lead them,

due to something
we call the "prefrontal cortex."

It basically does not have
the wiring to understand

long-term effects
of current impulses

and current behavior.

I had no clue. Robert does
what he does in your face,

so you don't even see it.

If you're in the studio,

and you hear the music going,
and the door is locked,

here's the thing--
you're accustomed to that.

Because this is how he creates.

You're not thinking
that there's something going on

on the other side of the door,

'cause if he wants
to do something,

he does it in your face.

So it was very easy

for me or anyone else
to not realize

what was going on
with her at that time.

It's never something
that I wanted to do

because I was not
sexually attracted to Robert.

I was not in love with Robert.

I didn't want that kind
of relationship with Robert.

It's what I knew I had to do

in order to...

satisfy him

and keep myself around.

He promised her the world.

And I believe he really tried
to produce on some levels.

I really do.

I honestly cannot think of

a time...

that I was with Robert
and we didn't have sex.

It was all the time.

All the time.

I mean, I-I hated it.

I hate... I hated...

I hated it.

But I did it.

Because I felt like I had...
it's what I had to do.

Tiffany was a singer.

Her relationship with Robert
was-was music, and

we introduced her to Aaliyah.

And she began to sing background
on Aaliyah's album.

And-and that made her very happy

because she wanted to be
a singer, and she could sing.

Aaliyah is key to everything.

My understanding
of what happened between Robert

and Aaliyah Dana Haughton
begins with Barry Hankerson,

who was the manager

who oversaw Kelly's rise
to superstardom.

He had a niece,
Aaliyah Dana Haughton,

and Hankerson paired Aaliyah
with Kelly.

And Kelly wrote,

recorded, produced

and titled
Aaliyah's debut album,

Age Ain't Nothing But A Number.

We became really fast friends.

My best friend, actually, um--

she had a problem
with Liyah because

it went from her and I
being very close

to Liyah and I beingvery close.

I did sing on her first album,
as well as participated

in the "At Your Best" video.

And I got to tour with Aaliyah.

Remember, he met Aaliyah
when she was 13 years old.

I don't think
anyone ever suspected

early on that they were having
a sexual relationship

because why would you suspect
a grown man of having sex

with a 13-year-old?

Hip-hop star R. Kelly did

indeed marry his protégé,

the 15-year-old singer
Aaliyah Haughton.

And Aaliyah produced
two pieces of ID

that appeared
to show her to be 18.

When I found out that
Robert and Aaliyah got married,

I didn't care.

It didn't bother me

because if someone else
was sleeping with him,

that was great, 'causeth.

A few days after the fact,

Aaliyah's father
put a halt to all that.

Even though, clearly,
there were people that knew about it,

it was something
that was covered up.

Aaliyah was

the first person to have

a signed
nondisclosure agreement,

known as an NDA,
with Robert Kelly.

An NDA-- what it is,

is most of the time
in a civil setting,

if parties agree to a settlement

and they don't want to share it

with the public or other people,

both sides sign
a nondisclosure agreement.

So you can't talk about
the terms of the settlement.

You can't talk
about how much money was paid

by either party.

That nondisclosure agreement

became the most

effective tool
in R. Kelly's arsenal

to continue
his predatory practices.

The Aaliyah
story's not mine to tell.

I wish that
Aaliyah's family would speak

because I think
there are so many

young black girls
who've been hurt,

that what it would mean to know

that Aaliyah was hurt
that way, too.

I mean, you know,
Aaliyah and I were

seeing each other
when she passed,

and we were very serious.

You know, we had talked
about getting married.

You know,
she was my best friend.

You know,
she taught me how to love

to the extent
that I know how to love now.

You know, there's a lot
of **** up people out there.

She just said he was a bad man,
and she left it at that.

I'm just saying,
it was... it was...

It just made her
so uncomfortable

that she... and that
I couldn't know about it,

because it would've made me
too uncomfortable not to try

to rectify that situation.

But I just wouldn't
have been able to tolerate,

you know, knowing certain things

and being in the same room
with certain people.

You know what I mean? Unless
they're begging me not to.

S-So I had
to get therapy over that.

If, like, people would have
protected Aaliyah,

so many other girls
wouldn't have got touched.

You understand what I'm saying?

And whether they know
they're in a bad place or not,

the fact that they were able
to get touched meant

they were in a bad place.

And they would've been able
to get help earlier.

You know, you shouldn't have
to always learn from pain.

Sometimes you can learn
from other people.

Like, Aaliyah was like the
sacrificial lamb for all that,

'cause she didn't deserve
none of that.

You know, was a good...
a good, good soul, a good girl.

And wasn't even really so,
like, resentful.

Like, "Let that man live,

but just keep him
the **** away from me."

That's all she wanted.

She was just happy to be away.

And you know, I-I know

the whole story,
you know what I'm saying?

I know it was to cover up
and all of that.

But how did that cover it up?
It just made the conversation

less crazy,
"He married a child"?

So how you still...? How...?
That was a headline.

That was, like, a rumor.

That was something talked about
like it was normal.

It wasn't like, "Ew, disgusting.
You married a 13-year-old."

It was like,"
you married Aaliyah?" She's 13.

- 15.
- Yeah, but the 15 is 13, man.

- Same **** thing.
- No. I-I just want to make sure

you're-you're absolutely
accurate.

Well, I don't have to be
accurate 'cause I don't care.

It's 15, 13.
Anything under 18 is disgusting.

You know what I mean? Like,
that... She was a child, bro.

I wound up going home after...

It was some months.

I wound up going back home

because I was pregnant.

Yeah, I remember,

when Tiffany called me,
and she was in pain, and

I said,
"Baby, you don't got to hurt.

You don't got to do this." I
said, "If that's Robert's baby,

"then all you got
to do is do this and do that.

"And, um, there's people
that'll help you with that.

"He'll hurt.
Make him hurt, honey.

Don't you hurt over that."

I don't want
to see Tiffany hurt herself,

because Tiffany was signed to me
as an artist.

She had become pregnant, and she
didn't know who the father was.

And she wanted Kelly
to take a paternity test.

And so I was thinking,
"Well, maybe I should ask him.

All right, I'll ask him."

And I called Robert.

He was getting ready
to go on stage.

And he told me,

"You and me both better know

that that's not my baby."

He actually took the time,
he put the audience on hold,

he put the show on hold
to make sure

that I understood what
he needed me to understand--

that we were not going
to take a blood test,

and that if I thought

that was his baby,

I better quickly remove that
from my mind.

And I said, "Okay."

And...

he said,
"Now tell me you love me."

I said, "I love you."

And when I got off the phone,
I was like,

thinking to myself,

"How did that conversation
wind up like that?

"How did that conversation
end up

with me telling him
I love him?"

I was angry... with him

because I really
didn't understand

why he wouldn't do that for me.

There is a part of me
that broke.

Um...

I-I did. I broke.

Within weeks

of that "last straw,"
as she called it,

that conversation,

she was depressed,
and she tried to kill herself

by taking a handful of pills.

Her mother was home.

She wound up in the hospital.

It was a really bad period
for her, as she tells it.

I said, "Tiffany,

"you don't have to do this
to yourself, you don't have

"to hurt yourself.
You can go to

see people
if Robert did this to you."

I saw a commercial

for Susan Loggans' firm.

Hi.
I'm attorney Susan E. Loggans.

If you have a case,
we will fight for you.

I felt like
I needed to be empowered

because I felt like
he had knocked me down.

I wound up

going into the office

and speaking to lan Alexander.

Tiffany Hawkins
was the first person

to bring this to the attention
of anybody,

and nobody believed her.

I think a grown man having sex
with young girls

repeatedly means
that there is a problem.

And I would think to myself,

"How is he still
getting away with this?

"Does not the whole world know

that this man is a pedophile?"

My witness list consisted

of Aaliyah, Jovante

and several other women,

people in Robert's camp,
definitely enough

for me to be taken seriously.

But I wasn't.

I called and called
and called the office

of the state's attorney.
Not a word back.

That was a big blowback.

You know,
like, the state has said,

"With all this evidence,
whatever.

We don't care."

We knew we had to take action

when the state
didn't do anything.

What Kelly was doing
was horrendous,

was predatory,

was serial,
and needed to be stopped.

And so what we had to do
was file

a lawsuit against him and
the people that he worked for.

Tiffany Hawkins
then files a civil suit.

The major difference between
criminal law and civil law

is that criminal laws
regulate crimes or wrongs

committed
against the government.

Civil laws regulate disputes
between private parties.

We knew that

our only avenue of redress
was a civil lawsuit,

seeking money damages.

We sued R. Kelly.

We sued Jive Records, Zomba,

Blackground.
We sued Kelly

for the assault and battery.

We sued all these other places
for negligence.

It's an imperfect system,

but it's the best system
that's out there,

and it's what we have.

Tiffany gave a deposition

that was described to us
as hair-raising,

that lasted
seven and a half hours.

On the record, she testified
that she had sex with R. Kelly

while she was a minor,
and that he knew it, and that...

that he had sex with
other minors in her presence,

and she testified under oath

that they engaged in group
sexual encounters together

with other minors.

Kelly's lawyers

threw me out of their office.

So they knew

they were screwed.

R. Kelly and his lawyers
quickly offered her

a $250,000 cash settlement,

contingent upon her signing
a nondisclosure agreement.

Bad men, particularly men
who are accused of

trafficking, abusing, raping
young girls and women,

there's usually some
financial aspect

that helps y-you evade justice.

You don't operate like that
out in the open, essentially,

for so long without some kind
of monetary attachment.

I left Susan Loggans' office

because I always want
to do my best,

and I really feel like
I was denied the opportunity

to do the best for Tiffany
Hawkins in this case.

Paying money for silence
victimizes women.

Susan, as far as I know,

has brokered settlements
for silence

for victims
of R. Kelly's abuse.

Do you know what
your rights are?

If you're not sure, call us
and tell us the facts.

Loggans began what I call
a sort of settlement factory.

Girls would come to her

with charges of underage
sexual contact with Kelly.

She would send them to
a private detective agency

in suburban Hinsdale,

make them take
a lie detector test.

A settlement would be struck,

a nondisclosure agreement
would be signed,

and the girl promised never
to speak about it.

I believe there are more than
a dozen of those settlements

that we don't know about,

because there were not
court papers.

Loggans has never given me
the number.

She has only said, "numerous,"
with a little bit of a smirk.

You know,
having the money was great.

That did not take the pain away.

It was not the-the end-all,
be-all. You know?

It didn't fix everything,
like I thought it would.

You know, it didn't
fix everything.

There were times,
during my lawsuit that I still,

like, I wanted to
make it go away.

There was times where,
I-I wanted to go back to him.

But, um--

Yeah, there--

There was actually a time
I called him.

He got on the phone,

and we talked probably
for five minutes,

and he said, "I don't think
we should be talking."

We got off the phone and, um...

I haven't talked to him
since then.

Oftentimes, survivors
of sexual violence

do not want the perpetrator
to go to prison.

They want the harm to stop.

They want the,
power dynamics to shift.

Oftentimes they want
to be loved,

because these are also
perpetrators who,

wooed them and-and swept them
off their feet.

They consider to be a boyfriend,

they consider to be someone
who loves them.

Consider to be somebody
who's in their family.

I wanted to run back to
the Robert that took care of me.

That-- The Robert that
I thought loved me.

You know?
The Robert that,

I felt like protected me,
you know?

He didn't want me to be
on the streets.

And he didn't want me to be
out there gangbanging.

I felt like he wanted
the best for me,

and he just did not
come through.

So while all the sex
was going on--

There was more sex

and not enough singing.

Part of her died
with that lawsuit.

She gave up her opportunity
to become a recording artist.

She gave up her friendship
with Robert.

She gave up everything
that made her smile.

She gave up her love
for the sound of music.

The music don't play
the same way to her no more.

Her dream ended
with the lawsuit.

The beat stopped.

Tiffany couldn't dance
worth a darn.

But Tiffany could sing.

She stopped singing.

She tried. It just--

The passion wasn't there
anymore.

We're grown girls,

but we're still little girls
that cry silently.

If you weren't there,
you'd never understand it.

ORareer,

since he became a hitmaker
for labels,

and a moneymaker
for a lot of people,

he has been protected
by innumerable forces.

There were absolutely enablers.

Without going to real specific
with names, but management?

Absolutely.
He couldn't--

He couldn't do this by himself.

Everyone knew, or most people
in that camp knew

that a lot of these girls
were underage.

I remember being called
into Jive late one night.

We were brought into
a conference room,

and they said, "Hey, guys,
we-we have a problem."

As for the video,

it's now the hottest-selling
tape and DVD

on the black market.

The stuff
that's going on in the tape,

it's horrifying.

During the time
of the explosive tape,

I remember them playing

15, 20 seconds.

At that point, my bosses said,
"We've seen enough."

You know, there are just
some things that

I think you can't un-see.

Right now, I can see

those 12 to 15 seconds
that I watched.

I can see the record...

the gold record plaques
in the background,

I can hear the squeaking
of the chair.

I can remember what she was
wearing and what she wasn't.

I remember seeing the camera
being set up,

and the focus being-being
set up.

In a panic, you know, they said
to me and another executive,

"You guys need to go to Chicago,

and you guys need to buy up all
the tapes you can find."

And we did.
We went to Chicago,

and, you know, I-I felt like
I was back on the block.

Like, "Yo, what you got, son?"
you know, kind of thing.

You know, and--

And just buying up as many
tapes as you could.

And I remember one of my bosses
telling me that,

"Jimmy, don't get caught up,

because if Rob goes down,
people are gonna get fired."

I was like, "Well, why?
You know, it's not our fault."

You know, and he said,

"Rob keeps the lights on
around here."

And I confronted Rob

about it one day.

He and I sat down,
and he said to me,

"Jimmy, you know, it wasn't me."

You know, he said,
"It was my brother."

And he said it was
his twin brother.

He was so believable

that I, in my head--

I'll never forget this,
I said to my friend,

I was like, "Yo, you know what?

"I never actually asked him
if he had a twin brother,

so maybe he did have
a twin brother."

And then you-you start
to go back, and I'm like,

"Okay, Jimmy, you were-you were
being manipulated."

Because I have this
powerful individual

that I'm revering,
and I accepted the fact

that something that he said
didn't make sense.

Because... I don't want it
to be real.

I don't want this to be
happening to you.

I hadn't been
around Robert since 1996.

I hadn't been around Robert.

I hadn't been on tour with him,

I hadn't, you know,
been to concerts.

I hadn't seen Robert in,
in years.

And then my name end up being
brought up in the situation.

Ed Genson got
on television and said that

the guy in the video looks like
his-his younger brother as well.

It could be possibly be him.

Carey got-- He was furious.

My brother wanted me to do
some ****, man,

pertaining to this case

that was gonna leave me
behind bars.

You know what I'm saying?
To lie.

To perjure myself
in a court of law.

His attorney said that
it was me in the videotape.

- What?
- That was their argument.

He never came forth and said,

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

This is realreal.

This is, this is not a joke.
It's not a game.

This is my life.

And I know my mama turning over
in her grave,

because this is not how
she meant it to be for us.

I arranged for
Robert and Carey to talk.

So we went out to his house
in Olympia Fields...

When I got there, it's only him

in this big, long room
in his house,

in-in his swimming pool.

You just want me to just get
in the swimming pool with you?

Robert asked me to get
in the pool

because he thought
that I was wearing a wire.

And that's why I came out
and said it to him.

I said, "Man, if you want to ask
me that am I wearing a wire,

just say it; be a man."

He was asking me, "Man,
you need to say that was you."

Commit a crime, pretty much,

to say that was me
on the tape with a minor.

Perjure myself in
a court of law, um, you know,

and-and risk jail time
for some stuff that I ain't...

that didn't have anything
to do with me.

"You need to say this
and that and the other.

"I'll buy you a car,
I'll buy you--

I'll get you a record deal,
and-and $50,000."

I said, "Man, let me
tell you something, man."

I said, "You ain't got enough
money for me to say that's me.

'Cause it ain't worth me
selling my soul."

Mr. Kelly has been indicted.

There's been a warrant issued
for his arrest,

and the Chicago police
department is currently

seeking to arrest Mr. Kelly.

Florida
sheriff's officers arrive

to serve the Illinois warrant
and arrest Kelly.

When they arrested him,

they searched the party house

and found-- in a gym bag,

behind a door marked
"Private - Do Not Enter" --

an early digital camera.

And they confiscated
that camera,

and on that camera
were pictures of Kelly

with an underage girl
and a legal-age woman.

He was further indicted
in Florida

for additional counts

of child pornography.

He had an incredible stroke
of good fortune.

The judge in that case

decided, six months or so
down the road,

that the sheriff's officers
had done

an illegal search and seizure.

Even though they were coming
to arrest a man

on charges of making
child pornography,

and they found more
child pornography,

the judge kicked that case out.

rity,

and because he had money,

he could get the best lawyers.

And lawyers know how

to slow down the system.

And this case, they made the
wheels of justice turn slowly.

In February 2002,
we were fairly certain

when the trial was set to begin,
he's nailed, he's done.

Usually, it's months between
indictment and trial,

especially in-in sex crimes.

Kelly had four top attorneys

who charged him $850 an hour--

untold billable hours--
for six years.

There was a lot of money
being made,

and they successfully
dragged their feet.

Every day they delay
taking this case to court,

the girl who was 14 on video
gets older

and looks less like a teenager,
if she ever testified.

Most victims of sexual violence

do not find justice
through the legal system.

And he was a person
of great significance,

and he was accused of hurting
a group of people

that has been less protected
and valued, perhaps,

than-than nearly any other group
of people in this country.

There were four public lawsuits

by the time he went to trial.

Tiffany Hawkins was
a wake-up call.

According to a civil
suit, Kelly began having sex

with a 15-year-old student.

You're sued, you settle,
it goes away.

Aaliyah is a wake-up call.

Hip-hop star R. Kelly did indeed
marry his protégé,

the 15-year-old singer
Aaliyah Haughton.

By the time he
got around to marrying Aaliyah,

who was 15 at the time,

it was like, there is
something wrong with him

that y'all are not seeing.

Tracy Sampson--

her sexual contact

begins with Kelly
when she is 17.

Patrice Jones-- at age 17,

she became pregnant

and Kelly forced her
to have an abortion.

A fourth public lawsuit--
Montina Woods

had sex with Kelly.

It was videotaped
without her knowledge.

None of the civil lawsuits--

Sampson, Hawkins, Jones, Woods--

were ever mentioned in court.

Gaughan had methodically
narrowed the prosecution case

to one girl on one videotape.

When I began working

at R. Kelly's home
in Olympia Fields,

there was this young girl
playing in the backyard.

Her family had a very close
relationship with Robert.

She would have been 14 or 15,

because the timing of it,

why I know,
is that Robert bought her

her first car when she was 16.

There were times
that this young girl slept over

in the studio.

But that wasn't alone.

It was with a family member.

And that's because her dad
was there

to play guitar at night
on the songs.

I never felt a need
to report anything suspicious.

I never saw anything
that looked weird or odd.

I never saw anything
that made me uncomfortable.

And I never felt the need
to call 911.

My name is Dylan Ely.

I was R. Kelly's engineer
at a studio,

Chicago Trax,
and also at his house.

When the sex tape came out,

you know, like, you hear someone
knocking on the door,

and-and that's very typical.

Like, I actually, like,
know the guy that--

You could recognize his voice,
like, that was knocking

on the door. And, like,
you would knock on the door,

and he would-- they would have
a message for Rob.

And so that's, like,
happening while the,

like, tape is

kind of happening, too.

Really, nothing changed,

as far as how we were working.
I mean,

it was like--
it came out, but, of course,

we didn't say anything about it,
of course.

You know,
it was like business as usual.

And the time leading up
to the trial,

I think we actually worked
probably a little bit more.

I mean, I would assume
he was, you know,

maybe working
to kind of keep his mind

off of, you know,
the proceedings and,

you know,
all that kind of stuff.

There was this one day.

We were in the control room
at Trax,

watching Chappelle's Show.

You know, Rob was in there.

We would, you know, watch
the show pretty religiously.

And the Chappelle's Show--
the famous skit came on,

where he's spoofing, you know,
the R. Kelly sex tape.

Rob was just...

He didn't say, "Turn it off."
He just, like--

He watched the thing,
and it was, like,

awkward silence for... a while.

I mean...

it felt like forever.

Um...

You know, everyone's like,

"****."

You know?

It was...

It was pretty intense
and pretty crazy.

Rob is probably

the weirdest/most intense/
most demanding

artist I've ever worked for.

Leading up to the trial,
there were two women

that lived pretty much
full-time in the garage.

They were there

as long as I was working
at Olympia Fields.

I think it was
kind of an unwritten rule

that they weren't supposed
to talk to us

and we weren't supposed
to talk to them.

I know very specifically
that the one that I would think

was the youngest one,

I know specifically
that she was 21,

'cause we had to buy
a 21-year-old birthday cake

one time and-and deliver it.

I'm pretty sure
that the-the birthday cake,

the 21st birthday cake,
that we delivered to the, um...

the garage was for the girl
from the tape.

During the trial,

the girl on the tape

continued to be part
of Kelly's circle,

to come around,
to stay with Kelly.

When I found out
that the girl from the tape

was living in the garage,
it was kind of like,

"Wow, that's... some balls,
for sure."

Um, so, yeah, it was--
it was a little bit crazy.

When I was forced

to testify against R. Kelly,

they asked me at the time,
"Was the girl in the tape

****?"

And after what I saw
and was forced in the room

to see,

I said, "Yes. That's her."

"Is that R. Kelly in the video?"

"I think so.
Yes, I-I think so."

"Well, how-- Can you be sure?"

Well, like, 20 years old,

you're scared to death.

But what I can speculate on
at this point in time in my life

is that, watching that video,

I did watch two consensual
people having sex.

I did not watch a rape.

Sex with minors

and the issue of consent,
we have a legal system

that says that they are
not allowed to consent.

So, if they're not consenting

by virtue-- even virtue of age,

it's a rape.

What we're talking about here is

adults who are trying to...

create an argument
to have sex with children.

There is no need for it.

The very foundation
for that argument is moot.

There were 14 witnesses
who testified to some knowledge

of the girl on the tape,
starting at age 13.

At age 14, she is,
when the videotape is made,

according
to the state of Illinois,

being raped by R. Kelly.

But the jury
never saw the victim.

The jury never heard from
the victim's mother and father.

The victim depicted
in the videotape and her family

received over $2 million
in financial benefits

for obstructing justice
and assisting R. Kelly

in beating those charges.

You're tried with almost
half an hour of crystal clear video

of you sexually violating
a 14-year-old girl,

and you're acquitted.

You think that this man
would've stopped.

But there always was talk
of other tapes.

After R. Kelly's trial

in 2008,
he was back to the races.

Making hit albums,

appearances, endorsements.

People really believed that
he didn't do anything wrong.

At the 2010 Soul Train Awards,

he was allowed to perform

a tribute to Sam Cooke.

He sort of made a decision to go
deeper into his Pied Piper,

dirty uncle type of persona.

He appears
two subsequent weekends

at Coachella.

He headlines Bonnaroo,
and he headlines

the Pitchfork Music Festival,

being embraced
by the white hipsters.

People looked at it like,
"Well, he wasn't charged.

He didn't go to jail for that.
He was innocent."

All of this because
the trial in 2008 was reduced

to one girl

on one videotape.

You would think, after the first
time that he went to trial,

something might have clicked

for R. Kelly.

But he was still making videos.

Robert was
always videoing stuff.

He was always videoing stuff,
so...

I know he would make tapes

of himself with women
and so forth.

I don't-- I don't think so.

I don't-- I don't think so.

I think, I-if he did,
I think they-they knew.

I-I mean, because...

Yeah, they-they knew
they were getting taped.

Yeah.

He would never ask me if,

um, it was okay to be filmed.

You don't know
that he's filming you.

He's never asked permission
to film.

He did.

He recorded me one time

having-having, sex with,
two women.

I didn't know that the--
it was being videoed, though.

He set me up.

I knew the next day,
'cause he showed it to me.

Yeah.

I think he did it as a joke.

He said,
"Y'all know I'm doing a movie.

It's called Dumb Looks."

And, he put the video on, and...

I'm...

"Man, you was videotaping me?"

And I'm--
So many dumb looks on my face.

You know, I guess that's why
he called it Dumb Looks.

Carey happened

to, come across a videotape.

At one point, we were
in Miami for about three months.

He was doing his--
one of his albums there.

I think it was, like, '95.

Robert had bought the movie
Stephen King's

Sometimes They Come Back...
Again--

horror movie-- on VHS.

And so we like, "Rob, man,

can-can your brothers watch
that movie with you, man?"

He said, "Man,
y'all got to buy y'all own."

And I took the tape back
to Chicago.

I'm not knowing
that what's on this tape

is not Stephen King no more.

And I put the tape in,

and what's on this tape
is these little girls

that he done filmed over.

He asked

these girls on this tape,
you know, "How old are you?"

It's like
he was interviewing them.

- And they was like...
- "13."

And these was white girls

that was 13.

The system--
it's a different ballgame

than a black girl that's 13.

He'd have been gone.

And I know

that I shouldn't have did--
But this-- At this--

at this time,
this is my brother.

At this time, it's like,
"Man, like, dude,

"dude, you-you finna
throw your whole life away.

What is wrong with you?"

Robert ended up coming
to Chicago, and...

I gave it to him.

And-and he burnt it up.

The things that he was able
to get away with in the '90s,

early 2000s, he wouldn't be able
to get away with today.

But we still want to make sure
that this doesn't happen again.

I think what's just is

each and every woman, now,
whose lives have been ruined

by dealing with R. Kelly,
being manipulated by R. Kelly,

being abused by R. Kelly,

what justice looks like
is whatever

they need to feel whole again.

There are people
in the music industry--

I have talked to people who
worked with him in the industry

who said,
"I know that he did this,

"and I took precautions
to not have--

to keep my people safe."

For me, a lot of this is about
the fact that, like,

America's laws have been set up
to protect men

around situations
of sexual assault and rape.

I'm sure
all that woman is thinking about

is how hard it is
to get justice.

All these people who
failed these girls, you know,

because this person
was powerful,

because it was
in their best interest.

It-it...

Every time I think about it,
I just get so angry.

You know?
I-I get very, very angry,

because they didn't deserve
that.

I do not think it is an accident

that all of his victims
are young women of color

and that almost all of them
are black.

I do not think
that it is a coincidence

that almost all of them
are from urban areas

where opportunity
is a challenge.

I do not think
that it is an accident

that so many
of R. Kelly's survivors

are people who are looking
for a void to be filled.

The truth of the matter is

R. Kelly continued to choose
a specific victim.

My name is Lanita Carter,
and I was

the hair braider for R. Kelly.

I was 24 years old
when I met him.

I met him
through a friend of his.

My goal in braiding his hair

was to be doing hair
for a celebrity

to build my clientele up.

Um, I was well-known

in different neighborhoods
for braiding hair.

And, um, it made me feel good
to be doing it for a celebrity.

I gained the respect of
many people for doing his hair.

My family--

they let me finish sentences...

when, normally, they didn't
really care what I had to say.

But it was more like, "Lanita,

"who's doing hair
for a celebrity,

she succeeded."

Everybody was proud of me.

It definitely felt... wonderful.

It made me more proud
when I thought about it.

You know, like, everybody wanted

to be doing something
for this guy,

and I'm doing his hair.

It didn't matter
how much I got paid.

I just wanted to be,
you know, a part of that.

R. Kelly was so warm

and welcoming and inviting.

He told me
he was my big brother.

And I didn't take that lightly.

I-I was proud of that.

And then...

It was like he crushed...

my life.

I'm here to encourage victims

related to these allegations

to please get in touch
with our office.

I was told not
to speak about it ever.

He's always felt like
he was above everything.

I just broke down crying.

I think, this time around,
folks want to get it right.

His victims deserve it.

The ones who've come forward
and the many who have not.

I want him to
acknowledge that he wronged me.

Make me feel
like I'm not going crazy.

He **** my daughter up.

Emotionally.

She was, like,

98 **** pounds.

Dominique, are you ready?

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