{"id":659000,"date":"2021-08-18T17:41:34","date_gmt":"2021-08-18T21:41:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=659000"},"modified":"2021-08-18T17:41:37","modified_gmt":"2021-08-18T21:41:37","slug":"opening-statements-underway-in-r-kelly-sex-trafficking-trial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/opening-statements-underway-in-r-kelly-sex-trafficking-trial\/","title":{"rendered":"Opening statements underway in R. Kelly sex trafficking trial"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">18<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fopening-statements-underway-in-r-kelly-sex-trafficking-trial%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=659000&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div id=\"attachment_2494755\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\">\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-2494755\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Disgraced music artist R. Kelly attends a hearing on his sex abuse case, March 22, 2019 at the George N. Leighton Criminal Court Building. (E. JASON WAMBSGANS\/AFP via Getty Images)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<h5>OAN Newsroom<br \/>UPDATED 1:46 PM PT \u2013 Wednesday, August 18, 2021<\/h5>\n<p>Opening statements have begun amid the charges against disgraced R&amp;B singer R. Kelly. Wednesday marked the beginning of Kelly\u2019s sex trafficking trial where he has pleaded not guilty.<\/p>\n<p>Kelly currently faces multiple charges including racketeering, sexual exploitation of a child, kidnapping and the sex trafficking of both women and girls. The attorney for the alleged victims said she is hopeful this will be their chance at a fair trial.<\/p>\n<p>Assistant U.S. Attorney Maria Melendez began her opening state by identifying Kelly as a \u201cpredator.\u201d She added he is \u201ca man who used his fame, popularity and the individuals at his disposal to target and groom girls, boys and young women for his sexual gratification.\u201d<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">R. Kelly is a \u2018predator\u2019 who demanded absolute fealty from the many women and underage girls he recruited for sex in a two-decade racketeering scheme, a federal prosecutor said as the R&amp;B star&#8217;s sex abuse trial began <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/exZX0tfxum\">https:\/\/t.co\/exZX0tfxum<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/buXzbEhdP2\">pic.twitter.com\/buXzbEhdP2<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Reuters (@Reuters) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Reuters\/status\/1428094349221384193?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">August 18, 2021<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>The trial is expected to last between six to eight weeks with a jury of 12 being the only members of the public allowed in the court room.<\/p>\n<h4>MORE NEWS: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.oann.com\/taliban-tries-to-appear-inclusive-in-first-press-conference-since-taking-control\/\">Taliban Tries To Appear Inclusive In First Press Conference Since Taking Control<\/a><\/h4>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Disgraced music artist R. Kelly attends a hearing on his sex abuse case, March 22, 2019 at the George N. Leighton Criminal Court Building. (E. JASON WAMBSGANS\/AFP via Getty Images) &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-659000","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/659000","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=659000"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/659000\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=659000"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=659000"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=659000"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}