( music playing )
When the video came out of r. Kelly saying that we could not mute him...
- Barnes: Oh, yeah. - ...That it was too late...
Man on video: Say it again!
- Man on video: That's right. - It's too late.
They shoulda did this ( bleep ) 30 years ago.
It's too late.
So many people sent it to me like, "this is outrageous."
- I was like, "no, this is wonderful." - this is beautiful.
You know, at that point I said, "oh, he knows who we are."
Like, he is actually feeling the effects of what it is we're doing.
( theme music playing )
Jim derogatis: The story here is
How did he get away with this for 30 years?
It should have ended with tiffany hawkins,
Victim number one, for sexual contact
That started when she was 15 in 1991.
Tiffany hawkins: I was the first girl, and nobody believed me.
And after that, it continued to happen.
Robert was having sex with aaliyah.
Hip hop star r. Kelly did indeed marry his protégé,
The 15-year-old singer aaliyah haughton.
This goes back to aaliyah.
Reporter: Robert, how do you feel?
Reporter #2: Was it you on the tape?
R. Kelly on trial
For allegedly videotaping himself
Having sex with an underage girl.
A lot of people saw that pee tape.
- It was circulated in the streets. - She was actually 14.
Tarana burke: And he's urinating on her in her mouth.
He was not thought of as guilty,
Even though the evidence was there.
After r. Kelly got out of trial, I do the interview.
He was very nervous.
Do you like teenage girls?
When you say "teenage," how old are we talking?
These families came forward and were making desperate pleas
To get their children back.
R&b singer r. Kelly is denying claims
He's keeping a household of young women
In a cult-like atmosphere.
- Mute r. Kelly! - Voices: Mute r. Kelly!
Singer r. Kelly has denied repeated claims of sexual misconduct,
But now some of his alleged victims are speaking out
In a powerful new docu-series.
Man, how complicit we all have been.
I was extremely moved by that whole show.
It was very heavy for me.
The whole thing was eye-opening,
Painful, sad, disappointing.
Man: Investigators credit "surviving r. Kelly"
With helping them build their case.
Man #2: His manager threatened to kill my whole entire family.
This is intimidation and retaliation.
Earlier today, robert kelly was indicted before a cook country grand jury
On 10 counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse
Involving four victims.
I'm fighting for my ( bleep ) life.
Y'all killing me with this ( bleep ).
- Robert. - 30 years!
Reporter: Kelly was indicted on yet another eleven counts.
Reporter #2: With new charges come three months
After kelly was hit with a 10-count indictment.
Reporter #3: Overnight, r&b star r. Kelly arrested in chicago
On federal sex crimes charges,
Two law enforcement sources tell nbc news.
A spokesman for the us attorney's office in chicago
Telling "usa today" a federal grand jury
Has indicted kelly on 13 counts.
Kathryn m. Martin: The documentary-- it was a bringing together
Of the collective power of these women.
What I love is the prosecution in new york.
It was a creative, bold use of that law, the rico law.
The racketeering, that takes down power structures, enterprises.
Derogatis: This is what they get mobsters and drug gangs on--
Charged with a federal criminal enterprise
Under the rico statutes the way they get the gambinos and the genoveses.
I've never seen somebody beat trial twice.
Just because someone says something now and it's 2019,
It doesn't make them credible.
I think all the women are lying, yes.
They're going on a "surviving r. Kelly" tour.
Have you ever heard of anything like that?
Getting paid, selling tickets.
I think it took 30 years
Because the world wasn't ready. That's ultimately it.
Burke: You know, this has been a long time coming.
Not only the survivors, but for the organizers
And activists and writers,
And just, like, plethora of black women
Who have been ringing the alarm for the longest time.
This 30-year history now, find out about,
Within the first 10 years it was pretty clear
What r. Kelly was doing.
I talked to more women off-camera
Who wouldn't come on camera,
But they would corroborate the details.
So I talked to way more women in chicago
Who wouldn't come on camera than did.
This has been going on for close to 30 years now because of silence.
This is something unprecedented in the history of popular music,
With, I believe, hundreds of victims over 30 years.
I now know 69 that I have talked to or interviewed
Or can name and have read testimony of.
But that's not counting those involved
In the second chicago federal trial,
And many who had never come forward publicly.
I think it's gonna take a long time to realize
Just how big a crime this was over three decades.
Bruce kelly: Robert likes younger women.
That's just a preference.
It's a preference. Everyone has preferences.
I wish I could kinda turn back the hands of time
And pound it into robert to get help.
I'm bruce kelly, robert's oldest brother.
Since the last time I was interviewed,
Of course you can see I'm-- I'm out of jail.
However, I'm out, rob's in.
Robert's not used to this.
You know, to-- to have your freedom
Taken away from you
In any aspect, it's a degrading experience.
I'm absolutely terrified for him
Because no one wants to face those type of charges.
Robert, to me, he's guilty of a lot of things,
But sex trafficking and racketeering is not one of 'em.
Anyone that's around him,
They always looked like they're having a great time.
Robert has never put anybody in an environment
Where they can't leave.
People are free to go and leave as they please.
A lot of these girls, they wanna be with an older guy,
So they lie about their age.
And some of these girls are professional at it.
And then when things don't go their way,
"oh, I'm a victim." that's not right.
There should be something done about that.
Actually I couldn't exactly follow the trial because I was locked up.
There was no tvs where I was.
I did not see or even know all of the victims,
Who they were, what they said,
So I can't definitely say that they all were lying.
I can't do that because I just don't know.
I would have to look at transcripts and go through all that.
It's deeper than I really thought.
So even though r. Kelly was arrested in 2019,
Shortly after, a couple months after,
Covid hit, so all trials were halted.
Adding to that, the multitude of charges
That r. Kelly faces in multiple states--
Just figuring out the schedule
In which r. Kelly will face these crimes
Was enough to halt it for a couple of months.
After several delays because of the pandemic,
R. Kelly will go on trial here in new york this coming summer.
The trial in brooklyn federal court
Is set to begin on August 9th.
Ultimately, it was decided that even though illinois
Has a couple of cases on their own,
Brooklyn gets the first take at r. Kelly.
They'll get their trial first.
And by the time all that's figured out,
It's not until August 2021
That this trial actually comes to fruition.
( knock on door )
Jonjelyn?
Hey.
Man: You're hoping to see your daughter?
I feel like she does go to court and supports him
Wherever he goes to court.
But I kind of feel like they're maybe hiding her right now.
He's-- he's not the victim.
I want to make sure my daughter's fine,
And that won't stop
Until I get the answer that I'm looking for.
Where is she? You know, he's here,
His immediate supporters, his camp are here,
So where is she?
Joycelyn met r. Kelly
Because she was invited to a concert.
I found out that she was not attending college on a regular basis.
That she was staying in the dorm,
She was coming to her classes,
But she was leaving and going to r. Kelly's house.
I'm ready to go. Like, why I'm still--
- You don't know who he is? - Why are we still here?
Joycelyn did not return to school after the christmas break
For the spring semester in January
And her room was completely cleaned out.
So, there was a whole morning routine.
You would roll up to the courthouse every day
And usually outside there'd be a ton of media
With their cameras, and there'd also be a bunch of r. Kelly supporters
And sometimes they'd be blasting music.
There was airport kind of security.
We would have to take our phones and laptops out of our bags
And it would go through the security check.
And then we would go up to the sixth floor, at that point,
Go through security again.
That was kind of like our morning routine.
Free r. Kelly.
So the trial was six week long.
Court, every day, would start at 9 am.
You would wait in this line.
Usually, you would be nowhere near the front
Because r. Kelly supporters would show up quite early
To make sure that they had their own seat in the courtroom.
Man: Why are you here?
I'm here to free r. Kelly.
He's innocent, and I think they railroaded him.
Something in my-- "I know I need to be there."
I said, "I need to be here the first day."
The possibility of joyce showing up to the trial was in the back of my head.
We were hoping she would testify.
We wanted to stay on task
And come there to support the victims.
Would joycelyn show up to the court? I was thinking yes.
When we walked into the courthouse
And I saw the lady with the red hair,
She felt more than a fan.
She had her phone out the whole time recording me.
I come to realize I had saw an image of her on google with joycelyn,
And I'm pretty sure she was joycelyn's handler.
This woman's job was to watch over joycelyn.
The last court date, when rob got shipped here,
I was the girl that was with them.
I went to dinner with them.
Because azriel said that rob called her
Told her to meet up with me in brooklyn, that I was a cool chick.
During the break, I had came out
And I looked at my phone, so I happened to have
My phone pointed towards her.
She thought I was taking a picture of her.
And then she goes to the authorities, which is a police officer,
And asked me-- I told the police,
"no, I don't have a picture of her."
And I looked at her and I said,
"well, don't you have my daughter?"
- "yes." - and she said, "yes."
When people talk about enablers, they're all over the place.
I believe the last time we saw each other was at the premiere in new york.
Yeah, that was the last time.
You know, we talk all the time, but...
Not in person, so it's good to be here.
It's good to see you.
Where are you today with the situation with joy?
Joy-- as of today, joy's still not home.
Some of his handlers are still keeping her away
Because he has another federal trial in another state.
I feel that they are trying to make us personally, the savages, look bad.
You know, to say, "he's been locked up over two years now.
Why's she not at home?"
We're all in the same boat.
Daughters, first of all.
Second of all, we have the same problem
With robert sylvester kelly.
My take on him being locked up,
I'm gonna tell you the truth.
It has nothing to do with us.
This was a spiritual war.
'cause a man that get away with so many things
Of the same repeated behavior,
Then that's something between him and god.
But by all means, I'm gonna be the first to tell you,
This thing has really mentally-- has messed me up.
I'll be the first one. I'm telling you.
I live with a whole lot of regret and pain
That nobody but probably these three men here have been through.
You know, there was times that me and tim talked
That we didn't know if our kids were dead or alive.
We still fighting now to get tim his daughter.
When I saw the arrest in cook county, it was a sigh of relief
Because he was off the streets.
By that time, dominique was already gone.
It's okay, okay. Daddy said he love you so much.
- Can I have some tissue? - Yeah, of course.
I felt like now azriel would be free.
You know, I was in hopes that, you know,
These young ladies would be able to be free.
Hmm.
It's been a rollercoaster ride.
When I tell you this stuff is demonic, man,
And it'd take your soul, it actually will.
Alice clary: Our daughter met r. Kelly at a concert in orlando.
R. Kelly expressed his interest in working with azriel
To possibly further her music career.
She thought this was her break.
Everything changed, and we stopped hearing from her.
We have not seen our daughter in three years.
She fell in love with someone that is a predator.
Watching the interview with my sister and gayle king,
It was heartbreaking.
Don't get me wrong, she looked stunning.
She was beautiful. But I didn't recognize her.
Tell me, azriel, why you're crying. Tell me.
You guys are believing it's a ( bleep ) facade
That our parents are saying.
This is all ( bleep ) lies for money.
That gayle king interview, watching azriel and joycelyn,
I'm thinking about their parents.
I'm thinking about how much work it's gonna take to free them.
At the point when they are ready to be free,
It's gonna take so much work.
( phone vibrating )
I'm in florida. My mom, she was in the hospital.
It was probably about four in the morning.
My phone rang. Azriel said, "dad, you gotta come get me now."
I left the hospital with my wife's too-small hoodie.
Her telling me, "do not go home.
Go to the airport. You gotta go now."
Jumped in my car, went to the airport, boom.
We coming. This family don't quit.
( bleep ) r. Kelly.
When I got there, no phone call. Nothing from her.
I'm like, "damn, what's going on?"
Maybe the plan ain't work, somebody came,
And I'm texting her, like, "az, let me know what's going on.
I'm ready to come over there."
So I come over there and come over there and can't get in.
You know, it's a secure building.
- I was all over the place. - Yes.
I'm looking like I'm trying to break her out of prison.
Every strange person that walked-- like,
"who is this?", this and that,
To get my daughter from a place she felt captive in.
Sounds like it was an escape.
That's what I'm telling you, man.
Like, what's going on that's making her this fearful?
You know, walking out the door?
People was involved in the situation.
Oh, yeah, oh, yeah. There's a few of them.
When we talk about enablers, we're not talking about somebody
Just, you know, every five minutes with your daughter
And just sitting there.
These people are people
That he has appointed
To direct things
And shield the girls from knowing the truth.
Right. So I'm waiting, waiting. Nothing.
Got a rental, got the biggest van I could get, went and booked a hotel.
She finally hit me back.
"oh, dad, all right, I'ma be ready in the morning.
You gotta be ready at a certain time."
I don't even think I smiled till we got out of chicago.
To see her packed and actually in the car, and she just slept.
And I'm driving just looking at her like, "damn."
To be able to go down that highway, man, for that many hours
And watch her, and had my baby right there
As the climate changed from 30-degree weather
To now we going back into 70, 75,
And she--
Like, "dad, I'ma drive from here."
And she drove us. She took us on home.
And I got to-- 'cause I had no sleep.
I remember walking through that door.
Alice was in the kitchen.
She was fixing breakfast.
And then az come the other way,
And, man, that lit the whole neighborhood up.
My wife wouldn't let her go. Like, I'm talking--
It was a feeling that nobody could understand.
It was this amazing moment because at this time,
You gotta understand, I'm still a father
That don't know all these details of...
Unheard of acts that a man would do to a child.
Right.
Far as me and her and our family,
We right there for her, but we got ups and downs.
We had to be mindful of certain things.
Azriel wasn't-- she wasn't a kid anymore.
We had to readjust ourselves to understand
We dealing with a young woman now.
It's work for all of us. It's continuing work.
And I think it's gonna be work until we finish.
And, you know, we have another trial coming up.
Coming home, you gotta understand this,
Because you have your daughter home
Don't mean you have 100% of your daughter home.
She still have ties to people she believed
That was on her side that was coming from his camp.
She believed that people were sincere
That she met during that time.
They was the ones that was still trying
To befriend her to persuade her to not tell her truth.
To tell her don't go to trial, to silence her.
And she had to find out that a lot of them people are sick.
They were sick, just like him.
Dr. Candice norcott: There are a lot of decisions along the way
To participate in a trial.
To have to face your abuser is no small feat.
"if you tell anybody, I'll kill you family."
"I know where you live. I'll come get you. My people will come get you."
If you are being victimized in a network,
Your sense of someone's coming to help me gets diminished greatly
And your hopelessness increases.
Melendez: R. Kelly kept a really tight circle.
He had a predatory pattern of behavior
That was enabled by his criminal enterprise,
Which in this case is his bodyguards, entourage,
Assistants, et cetera.
Even before the trial started, one of them
Set one of r. Kelly's accusers' cars on fire.
Another one tried to bribe an accuser to not talk out.
Another allegedly tried to stop the premiere
Of the "surviving r. Kelly" screening.
These people, even after r. Kelly's in jail,
Were still trying to protect his name.
They wanted these women's allegations to be snubbed.
They did not want them out there.
They did not want r. Kelly's name dragged through the mud.
People enable because they want to be in proximity to power.
And over time, the enablers have also been gaslighted and groomed.
So they're also confused.
( sirens wailing )
So, the day my house was attempted to be set on fire,
There's about six of us in the house.
All I hear is my son.
"dad! Dad! There's a fire!" I'm like, "fire?"
We got cars in the driveway, car in the garage.
Lot of equipment in there from our restaurant,
Stuff that can ignite.
Got everybody out the house. My wife called the police.
Boom.
Everybody going nuts. Wife going nuts.
When you're in panic, you can't do nothing.
- Just everything burned. - Wow.
Fire department get there, they hurry up
And put the thing down so it can't spread and all that.
As daybreak coming in,
We see a big old can of gasoline.
So then we find out he doused the whole house with gasoline.
You know, it was the kid. Michael williams.
Reporter: Michael williams has pleaded guilty to arson.
He's related to the singer's former publicist.
Through his cousin, uh, you know,
She's in the paperwork as well, kash jones,
A cousin or whatever it was.
The kid, michael williams, got charged.
He got sentenced to eight years.
But here is a man that's tried to kill my family.
How do you get yourself so inserted
That you want to kill six people?
You going to kill everybody in the house?
I'm baffled.
- These enablers. - I'm, like, blown.
Lizzette martinez: He kinda had, like, a goofiness to him
When I initially met him.
I knew he was older, but when he gave me his number,
I wasn't thinking things would be where they are.
I was a radio dj in dallas, and I had met r. Kelly
At an after-party while he was on the "love letter" tour.
I was at aventura mall with some girlfriends.
His bodyguard handed me his phone number and said,
"r. Kelly would like you to call him."
I was so young and it was so long ago.
But it just feels like it-- honestly, some days it feels like it was yesterday.
Like, I remember so vividly things.
And then other days, I just don't want to remember and I try to forget.
- Jones: Yeah. - And then I see faith.
And then I'm like, "this has gone on for so long."
'90s. 2013-ish for me.
And then three years later, I think '17 for you?
- '18. - Yeah.
So just to know that it kept going for that long between the three of us.
We share this common thing that is so awful and terrible,
And you want to get to know the person,
But a lot of us were, like, shut down.
You and I had a little thing, and then...
- Yeah, we had a shouting match. - We had a shouting match.
Yeah, in new york, we had a shouting match.
We had a shouting match, but then we put it to bed.
It's weird because you want to get close,
But then again it's, like-- it's not a fun topic.
I was, like, in a world that I shouldn't have been in,
And the same story for all of these girls.
I didn't know kitti, like, personally,
But I had seen her on television.
And I didn't know faith either, but I saw the interviews.
The music industry is dark,
And he was an important person in the music industry
Who made a lot of money for a lot of really important people.
That's why it took 30 years,
Because you weren't important enough.
There was a lot of backlash
And people in the black community that resented us
For bringing down a black man, you know?
And this is a real thing in the black community.
One of my attorneys lost clients
When she posted me a couple years ago,
And I realized how much it impacted
Not just us who lived it,
But people that helped us have our voices heard.
There can be a natural instinct for groups,
Especially african-american groups,
To want to protect r. Kelly.
In the history of the united states,
Black men have been targeted by the justice system.
As a black man, you know,
I naturally want to protect other black men.
That's understandable, but I also have to realize
That just because they're black doesn't mean I need to justify
And rationalize and protect them.
R. Kelly, he tapped into a narrative that existed, you know?
That, um, you know, women deserve--
Black women in particular deserve what they get.
If they're abused by black men,
That protecting black men is more important
Than addressing that abuse.
Someone like r. Kelly,
Who refuses to take any responsibility
And only escalates their behavior
Does leave us with, you know, few opportunities
But this really broken legal system.
It's definitely been an experience, having all the backlash
And the bashing of our daughters.
- Every day. - When they go out, just trying to--
To live their life, they're harassed.
My daughter was assaulted.
They threatened to kill my daughter.
They threatened to come into my church.
To be backlashed, and then your daughters to be hated...
- All over again. - Yes, yes.
Even on social media, just all over again.
I see my face all over social media.
We've all moved from our previous homes because of this.
It's just gotten to a point where I can't even put my kids in school
Because of everything surrounding the trial.
With a baby wanting to come like any day now,
I've been advised to do an emergency move.
It's, like, people don't even know what's going on behind the scenes,
Like, what the survivors are actually going through and dealing with.
I think I used to always tell myself,
"I don't live my life worried about that
Or thinking about, you know, my past with r. Kelly
Or even being on the documentary."
But it's taken me a while to get comfortable with people again.
I feel like every time I interact with people in a very large setting,
I always have to look over my shoulder.
Somebody's talking about me
Or somebody's saying something about me.
I'm not able to just introduce myself as faith.
I don't think it's that people
Didn't believe these black girls.
I don't think that at all. I think they believed them.
I think they know predators in their family.
And I think that they chose to turn a blind eye
Because r. Kelly was a prodigy who gifted them
With so much laughter and joy and dance.
It's hard to think of a specific class,
For lack of a better word, of people
Who are treated more unfairly
In this society than black women.
That has an awful lot to do
With why the initial allegations against him
Did not receive more attention.
The cultural climate now
Is more sympathetic to r. Kelly's alleged victims,
Definitely, than it was 2000, 2001,
2008, even five years ago.
#metoo has happened. There's been a greater awareness of that.
The black lives matter movement has made a difference.
Julie reinstein: So, I think one of the things that was unique about this trial
Was really what the charges were based around. This was a racketeering trial.
R. Kelly wasn't just charged with aggravated sexual assault or something like that.
He was charged with having an enterprise that allowed him to do this.
It was essentially organized crime charges.
The brilliance of the rico strategy,
As it was explained to me, was that in proving an enterprise,
You can bring in many victims who are not specifically charged
With crimes that kelly committed
In the interest of proving the pattern of behavior.
At the time that we announced charges back in 2019,
It was a result of survivors coming forward
And being willing to go through a system
And a process that for so many of them
Had been incredibly frustrating.
When we're preparing specifically for cases involving sex abuse or sex assault,
We recognize that the machinery
Of the criminal court system is cold.
It is very systematic.
But you are talking about one of the worst moments
That anyone can suffer in their lives,
And that they are required as a part of this process
To go and sit and talk to many strangers about this moment.
And so a trauma center approach
Means we come with that recognition first.
Above all else is the health and the welfare of the survivor
In the pursuit of justice and not simply just getting the conviction.
Definitely was hesitant. It was like, you know,
You don't really know if people are on your side.
So I think they kinda had to, like, persuade me a little bit
Because I definitely had my guard up.
I was contacted by the federal authorities in early 2019.
I must have smoked like 10 cigarettes
Before I walked into the hotel where we were meeting.
I was a little bit nervous and anxious.
When I would meet with them in chicago, it would be at their headquarters.
You pull in, like, this driveway that's down under the city.
It looks like a tunnel or something,
But it's underneath the building.
And they took me through the security checkpoints.
It's really secretive.
Van allen: Back in 2008, I don't feel
Like they looked out for me enough during the trial.
They let the defense say pretty much anything they wanted to say about me.
That bothered me a lot.
The feds for this trial, they apologized for that.
Even though they weren't there, they apologized,
They said, for what I had to go through,
And they said it would be nothing like that trial,
Like the 2008 trial.
I didn't hold back at all. I gave them everything.
They needed to know the graphic details
Because it helped the case.
For me, I don't have any regrets because, you know,
What could be worse than what I've already endured with him?
I always said, if I die tomorrow,
At least I know that, you know, my truth is out there,
And no one else is gonna tell it for me.
My experience with authorities in 2003
Versus 2019 changed immensely.
I felt like I was handled with more care.
I felt less apologetic.
I felt believed this time.
My name is lanita carter,
And I was the hair braider for r. Kelly.
( voice breaks ) I wanted to make a living just off of doing his hair.
He pulled my braid down, like, toward him,
And I go like this.
And he just started hocking and spitting, going...
( imitates spitting )
He was like, "suck it. Suck it for daddy."
It was like he crushed my life.
The state contacted me.
They rushed me from my home to--
I don't really want to talk about that. That's the state.
I don't want the state to be mad at me.
- Man: Okay. - 'cause I don't want to talk
About where we met and all of that stuff because of the--
You know, like, the safety of other people.
- Yeah, of course. - If they have to still go to that building.
The decision to disclose is different than the decision to report.
Many survivors will disclose to somebody-- friends, family.
But reporting to, like, a formal system is different.
Oftentimes the decision point is made at a time
That is really early in their recovery.
Like, the process of healing from a trauma
And healing from a violent assault is not linear
Or does not coincide with what's required to participate in a trial.
The other thing survivors also experience
Is feeling responsible, like they have to report.
They're already at times feeling responsible for what's happened to them.
And then being told by other people,
"he'll go on to abuse others if you don't say anything."
You know, it's meant at times to be motivating,
But oftentimes it brings on more shame.
So it's very complicated.
Sometimes victims of sexual abuse or sexual trauma
Struggle to talk to the justice system,
To find a source of support, because they worry
That the justice system isn't gonna believe them
Or that it was their fault
Or they were responsible for the situation.
Why didn't they do something different?
A lot of people are afraid to go out there
And, you know, speak their truth
Because of the responses they might get.
I don't feel good about being a part of this.
In my victim mode, I feel like,
"oh, we about to make him mad.
We shouldn't do this."
I remember when I was in abusive relationships,
You'd get into a fight, you'd call the police,
And then the police is roughing him up,
And you're like, "get off of him."
You know, it's the same thing,
Where you kind of feel like when people are saying like,
"r. Kelly is being railroaded by the system,"
You feel like, "man, I don't want to be a part of the railroad.
They're saying it's a railroad."
I don't want him on trial
For what my whole life looked like.
I only want him on trial for what he did to me.
When I spoke to the authorities, I was very frank with them.
I would have no problem testifying.
- But I was terrified. - Oh, yeah.
I was, like, so riddled with anxiety.
- Yeah, yeah. - Because to think
That I haven't seen this person in so long,
And then to have to walk into that courtroom--
Like, I didn't want to see his face.
That was-- yeah, that was going through my head, too.
Honestly, I didn't know what that was gonna do to me.
You and I, we kinda got some relief
Because our daughters are out of there.
But tim's daughter is still there.
So the fight continues, really.
At some point, your daughter's coming out of that.
She's gonna come from up under that spell,
And she's gonna be back with the people that really love her.
And there's no doubt about that. I really believe that.
Thank you.
You know, we're in this situation with our daughters
- And it affects the whole family dynamics. - Exactly, exactly.
You know, like I say, I have faith where I can physically see her.
I can call her every day.
You don't. You don't have joy.
You have the memories, you have the photos.
- You don't get to hear her voice. - Right.
And I know that that's painful.
Because I believe she loves you guys.
But then she's got the handlers in her ear.
She has him making her believe that he loves her.
I was told that her and r. Kelly was engaged.
When I heard that, my heart dropped, too.
Because if he was to marry her while he's in jail, he's just--
I mean, that's to keep her from being able to testify.
Could she really be in love with him?
Okay, what if she called today and said, "mom,
I love him. It's me now.
There's no more competition for him.
If I could just get my parents
To accept that this is the man I love..."
No. This man has manipulated her
And twisted their minds.
That's not a healthy relationship.
Derogatis: R. Kelly's defense team
Had been headed by steve greenberg since 2018.
Greenberg, controversially, has referred to these women as groupies, as liars.
The press conference he gave in February 2019,
It was an emotional moment for me, and I blew up at greenberg.
There are a number of interviews where the young lady says,
"I lied about how old I was."
You have a book coming out,
And I hope you sell lots of books.
What else is your question?
All of these women? They're all liars?
They're all looking to do a book?
I mean, I think greenberg hopped on to kelly's defense
Knowing that it was a high profile media platform,
And I think he did his job well.
Is it morally defensible to be calling all of these victims liars,
Gold-diggers, media hounds?
No. But I guess that's how our system works, right?
You deserve the best defense.
Before they actually went to trial,
Rob let a lawyer go, he hired another attorney
Who didn't have time to prepare for this trial.
The chicago-based lawyers representing r. Kelly
In his new york trial have asked to withdraw from the case.
When you going to trial, you want your lawyer to be up to speed on everything.
It's hard to understand why kelly tossed out
His first legal team and went with deveraux cannick.
Some people say he fired the first legal team.
Other people say they left.
It's been reported that greenberg and one of r. Kelly's other lawyers,
Nicole blank becker, disagreed about legal strategy in his defense.
Did nicole get in r. Kelly's ear? We don't really know.
But greenberg left and blank becker stayed.
Rouhani: It felt like nicole blank becker became the face
Of the trial once greenberg left.
The plan wasn't for what his defense was
To be what his defense was.
It just kind of turned out that way.
Deveraux cannick came into the trial
Later in the game than everyone else did,
And he was the one that seemed to have the most experience.
The experience level was something that led
To some disputes in terms of who should take on what.
It just felt a little chaotic,
Which I think sort of foreshadowed what was to come.
The final indictment that comes out of brooklyn, it names six women.
And then a month before trial,
Prosecutors also add on this very large
55-page document that lists 14 additional women and two men.
For the first time, we're hearing of a john doe.
The feds are laying it all out in these 52 pages.
The new accusations describe young boys
As r. Kelly victims too.
That was really new information, I think, for most of us,
And just kind of shed new light
On how many people he really hurt.
( distorted ) I was not aware until a couple of the girls in the house
Started to talk about it,
Of there being a guy that he was involved with
Who would sometimes come into the bedroom with them.
I think I'd heard rumors before that-- you know,
That there were male victims of r. Kelly.
I think it's more about the acts for him, the control and the power.
It doesn't matter who it is.
It doesn't matter what they look like.
It's, "can I get power and control over this person?"
The young boy that he raped--
You can't consent when you're underage.
They were sexually assaulted and groomed.
He's pure satan.
I wish he'd be locked up forever
For what he's done to all these girls,
Young boys, young men.
He's a predator, and a predator needs to be put down.
Noah goldberg: It's day one of the r. Kelly trial.
The prosecutors open first,
And they basically describe the enterprise
That they say r. Kelly ran.
And then the defense came on.
His lawyer nicole blank becker,
She went for even longer than the prosecution.
She seemed a little nervous at first,
But she didn't finish, uh, before lunch.
We saw this was a pattern, this was an enterprise.
And it was obvious that the defense
Didn't really have much of a defense.
The defense that they put up, it was nothing.
The opening statement from the defense,
On top of having all these pretty shameful
Accusations against the women,
Was also just a hot mess.
The defense had lanes and opportunities
To do a smart opening statement,
And instead it was just riddled with these really bizarre moments
That was hard to get past.
Nicole blank becker, who was one of the main
Defense attorneys for r. Kelly,
She was the only woman on his team.
She spoke for maybe three hours?
It was all over the place.
Nicole blank becker several times
Referred to "girls,"
Sort of underscoring the prosecution's case,
That these were underage victims.
She said, at one point that "you must find r. Kelly guilty."
And then she corrected herself and said,
"I'm sorry, not guilty. Excuse me." wow.
She was just all over the place.
The judge was like, "hold up, we need to take a break.
Just come to the bench and let's sit down and talk about what's going on here."
Cannick-- the case is about racketeering and sex trafficking.
He just didn't touch on the things that he should have.
- Bad move. - What was kelly thinking?
Why did he switch up his defense?
Only robert knows.
I think I'm all cried out, but I was shaking earlier.
My hands couldn't stop shaking.
I think personally our presence was here
To let the victims know--
Even though I didn't get a chance to see my daughter--
It was to let the victims know that we're here
And we're here for support for them.
Azriel clary's testimony is just horrifying to read,
And just disgusting.
The court heard the latest testimony
From a woman in her twenties.
However, she says she was 17
When she started a relationship with r. Kelly.
The woman also testified kelly had strict rules,
Which if broken, would result in physical abuse.
I was sick to my stomach.
That one made me upset, really upset.
I experienced some really degrading and disgusting things.
And I just...
( sighs )
The prosecution methodically told us
The story of azriel clary.
There she is, giving this testimony,
Including how she was coached, along with joy savage,
To lie to gayle king.
From the transcript--
"were you truthful when you spoke to gayle king?"
"I was not."
During the trial, you testified that--
You said, "I was not honest,"
In the interview that you did with us.
- Yeah. - What were you not honest about?
- Everything. Everything. - Everything.
He had us practicing every single day.
- Practicing what? - Answering questions.
And if he didn't like our answer,
He would tell us exactly what to say and how to say it.
She wrote a journal entry at age 17
Reminding herself of "daddy's rules."
"I love daddy and I'm happy to be here."
"if daddy belches, say, 'god bless you, daddy.'"
"remember to be young and optimistic and bubbly,
Like the little girl I was when I first met daddy."
"never question anything daddy asks of me."
"never question daddy."
She gave us the clean version of a bad situation.
So it's things that were enough to ruffle your feathers,
Get you upset, and be glad she was home.
But then to hear the things that really went on,
That's a whole 'nother level.
To take the stand, and to so bravely say
The things she said,
That kelly would ejaculate on her
And not allow her to clean herself off,
That you had to carry this all day.
That if she had not sufficiently sexually pleasured him,
While he was videotaping the act as he often, often did,
The punishment, the "chastisement," was his word,
Would be to smear her own excrement on herself, to eat it.
And if it wasn't done enthusiastically enough,
To repeat the performance.
Once you reached your one-year anniversary, that's what you do--
Eating his feces and drinking urine.
He wanted you to prove that you were loyal to him
And that you really loved him, and that you two were bonded
And you couldn't be, you know, separated.
It was something that happened quite often.
( distorted ) azriel, she was on the tour bus, they were in the back room,
And I heard him hitting her--
"spanking," as he calls it.
There was another incident where robert made one of the girls--
Or a couple of the girls eat his feces.
That was more of a loyalty type of ritual,
When they had, um, had to eat the feces.
Even recounting, my body is kind of having
The same physiological response that it had then. I was sick.
Putting feces on someone's body and painting their face
Is just another form of extreme control.
Extreme control and extreme manipulation.
The loss of control as a child,
The loss of control as a teenager,
Can push you in a compulsive type of behavior
To regain that control.
How can you do this?
Take away other people's control.
And you dominate not only your feelings and your behavior,
But the behaviors of other people.
Jim derogatis: This is gonna follow her for the rest of her life,
And yet here's this woman doing this incredible brave thing.
Talk about strength.
There was no joy in telling those facts.
Eating human feces, um...
I don't know even know who the woman is,
It just said "jane doe,"
And, um, it took me back.
I was just so disgusted.
I wanted him to fry in hell
After I read some of that stuff.
I've read all the transcripts.
It made me question me as a father.
It made me feel...
Empty again, dark.
She also apologized to gayle king
For the disrespect on the first interview.
- I gave someone that control over me... - Mm-hmm.
...To basically make me do
Whatever it was that they wanted me to do
And act however they wanted me to act.
I can't imagine how hard it was
For azriel to have to tell her truth.
He made her have group sex. They were little kids.
They were young kids who wanted to be somebody.
Same story, and he just groomed them.
The little piece of me during my journey
That wanted him to get some help,
It just went out the window.
It went out the window.
( line ringing )
Lanita: Hey, miss rodgers, how you doing?
I'm good. How are you?
I'm doing okay. Just trying to keep it together.
I hear you. I hear you.
Well, I'm actually in new york getting ready for trial...
How you feeling? You feeling okay?
...With faith. I'm a little overwhelmed.
But, you know, we've come too far
And I'ma see it through
Until each of y'all get what y'all deserve,
And that's a guilty sentence.
- Guilty. - Yeah.
The federal authorities didn't interview me.
They did interview my wife because she was involved in the case.
I will say that, you know, the times that faith had to meet with them,
We were never allowed to be in the interview process.
They took her off, and sometimes she would be gone for hours.
Kelly: Right now she's in another area of the courthouse talking.
This is where we are, sitting here waiting on--
Waiting on our baby girl.
She's had a stressful, long day.
You know, we just want her to know we're sitting here waiting on them.
- Yes. - So when she come out, we're can love on her.
Over the last couple years, I realized I haven't had
Anything really important going on besides dealing with this
And always being sucked back into this.
And that is kind of hard to be honest with yourself about.
I can't say that I'm still ready to be in a relationship
Or every day I wake up and I feel good.
No. I'm still not there.
There were days where I would just sit on the couch
For weeks at a time, not get dressed,
Not get my hair done because I'm just sick in my head.
There were a lot of times I called some of my friends, and I'm like,
"I really don't think I'm gonna make it to 30," you know?
I'm 24 years old, and I was like, "I hate life."
And I'm getting emotional just talking about it because I have--
It has taken everything in me
To not just blow my head off some days
Because I felt like I can't press forward.
Kelly rodgers: Faith didn't want to be jane doe 6.
She felt like, "if I filed these charges,
I've already gone before the world.
Why would I identify as a number?
I'm gonna say who I am.
I'm jane doe #6, faith rodgers."
I was a nervous wreck because I was worried about you
Walking into that courtroom and having to see this fool.
- You were on my mind heavy. - Yeah.
- Thank you. - I don't know what you did to prepare,
- But that's bravery. - Thank you.
There was no playbook on how to prepare for trial.
The number one thing I was just trying to worry about was just holding my composure.
So to mentally tell myself, "don't let this person tear me down.
Don't let this person that has had all these things happen to me on purpose,
Don't let his team see that they're eating me up."
Even though I wanna yell, I wanna shout,
Like, I just had to just refrain from all that.
I'm nervous trying not to think about any opinions.
Just trying to let go of any fear I have, any worry.
I'm just ready to just go in there,
Tell my truth, and walk out.
Well, some see you as a hero, so that's a good thing.
- Yeah. - Yeah.
A lot of little girls and boys and even women
Looking up to you, so that's even a bigger picture.
Yeah.
Charles rodgers: Right now, lord, we pray for strength
For what we are about to encounter
And that certainly as her name is faith,
That her faith will be in you.
In the name of jesus we pray.
All: Amen.
Faith: I never really stepped into this thinking, you know,
"I'm doing this for all black women."
But that's what it's become,
And now I see I'm a part of a movement
That's bigger than myself.
I was like, "this is really happening.
I'm really dressed to go to trial.
This is real. Take a deep breath.
Stay strong. Stay focused.
Your story still matters.
What happened to you still matters."
Here goes nothing.
Here goes the last of everything.
I have a duty to do right now,
And I'm ready to just execute it and finish it.
Even with him there, I'm ready.
Free r. Kelly.
- Free r. Kelly. - Free r. Kelly.
Robert is still the ( bleep ) king of r&b.
There are so many people that enabled r. Kelly.
- Demetrius smith. - Demetrius smith.
Demetrius smith had to be offered immunity
Because he did not want to participate,
But obviously they needed him.
In new york at the premiere,
Somebody had called in a gun threat.
You run an organization of men that follow you to a t.
Everyone in r. Kelly's operation needs to go to jail. Everyone.
To talk about john does, it threw me for a loop.
I mean, this is my brother we're talking about.
I've been saying for years,
"it's not just young women. It's young men too."
This was about him dominating. It didn't matter who.
Aaliyah is key to everything.
Aaliyah's name was said for the first time in a criminal court.
When you start with aaliyah, you start with a large scheme.
That shows you grooming, that shows you how young,
That shows that nothing has changed.
That lays the framework for the pattern.
I would always ask him about him and aaliyah, and he would deny it.
But what I saw on that tape was he and aaliyah being intimate.
She's been gone a very long time.
She can't speak for herself,
But to be able to be a voice for her,
I think my heart was gonna jump out of my throat
As I was standing outside of the door
To enter the courtroom.
I was scared out of my mind.