After a year of delays, R. Kelly is finally about to head to court to begin the first phase of his sex trafficking trial in New York City. As the jurors are being selected, he aims to get ahead of what will be discussed inside the courtroom, detailing his medical history.
harges Kelly filed the documents today in the Eastern District of NY and asked the court to throw out charges for knowingly exposing his previous sexual partners to herpes. Insider reports that Kelly’s attorneys, Thomas A. Farinella and Nicole Blank Becker, said prosecutors were wrong in bringing several sex-trafficking charges.
In addition, they said the ‘Step in the Name of Love’ crooner should not have been charged with breaking New York law when he was accused of giving two accusers the herpes virus. Kelly also added that the legislature didn’t include herpes in the law because it’s “Not An Acute, Bacterial Venereal Disease.” His legal team also argued that the virus doesn’t fall under the umbrella of STDs, compared to syphilis or gonorrhea, due to the New York State Dept. of Health and the World Health Organization definition.
It’s unclear if the judges will drop those charges against Kelly, but we’ll be keeping an eye out once opening statements begin. Kelly is scheduled to begin trial on August 18th, and it’s expected to last for four weeks. In addition to the herpes charges, he faces federal sex-trafficking charges in Chicago and state-level sex-related charges in Illinois and Minnesota.
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