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Former tour manager claims he faked the IDs for R Kelly’s 1994 marriage to Aaliyah

By | Published on Monday 23 August 2021

R Kelly

The R Kelly trial continued in New York on Friday, with the standout testimony relating to the accused star’s short-lived marriage to Aaliyah in 1994.

Kelly, of course, faces a stack of charges in multiple US states relating to allegations of sexual abuse, including against minors, and other alleged crimes, all of which he denies.

The current trial centres on charges that were filed in New York state, and – beyond the specific testimonies of various alleged victims – prosecutors are keen to show the jury how Kelly and his inner circle built and ran a decades-long criminal enterprise designed to allow the musician to control and abuse numerous young women, while constantly covering up his actions and silencing his accusers.

It’s alleged that in 1994 Kelly, aged 27, was led to believe that he had got his then fifteen year old protege Aaliyah pregnant. Fearing that could lead to charges of sexually abusing a minor, Kelly decided to marry Aaliyah, because under US law a wife cannot be forced to testify against her husband. With the couple married in secret, and without the knowledge of her parents, papers were forged to show that Aaliyah was eighteen.

On Friday the court heard from one of Kelly’s former tour managers who claims it was him who arranged for the fake IDs. Demetrius Smith said that, while working on one of Kelly’s tours in 1994, the musician told him that “Aaliyah was in trouble”, but that her uncle Barry Hankerson – who was working with Kelly at the time, as well as running the label that released his niece’s music – shouldn’t be told.

Smith added that Kelly then said that his business manager Daryl McDavid was already arranging the marriage, in order to ensure the musician was “protected”. Although Smith initially said he thought the marriage was a bad idea, he subsequently offered to obtain the fake IDs, fearing that he would be pushed out of the star’s inner circle if he wasn’t seen to be supporting the plan.

Smith told the court that he bribed a clerk at the Illinois Department Of Human Services to get one fake ID, while the other came from a mail courier company. Kelly and Aaliyah then went to city hall in the Chicago suburb of Maywood to get a marriage licence. The marriage was subsequently annulled.

The former tour manager became agitated at various points during his testimony on Friday, especially when it was pointed out the IDs he’d described faking wouldn’t normally be accepted for the processing of a marriage licence.

At one point he told the judge that he wasn’t comfortable talking about these things, especially without Aaliyah’s mother being present. Smith’s testimony is due to continue later today.

Elsewhere during Friday’s proceedings, the court also heard from one of Kelly’s former assistants, who worked at the musician’s home and studio for two years in the late 2000s. Anthony Navarro said that, although he never witnessed Kelly sexually abusing anyone, the musician enforced strict rules at his home.

While working there, Navarro was told not to talk to any of the girls who came to Kelly’s property, but to report it to his superiors if those girls ever left the rooms they had been escorted to. And sometimes, he claimed, girls who wanted to leave Kelly’s home couldn’t, because they couldn’t get hold of the musician.

Navarro – who ultimately fell out with Kelly over allegedly unpaid wages – said he enjoyed any studio-based activities during his time working for the star, but that “all the other stuff was kind of strange – it was almost like the twilight zone – it was just a strange place”.

The trial continues.



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