The lawyer for R. Kelly sought to have his sex-assault conviction overturned, claiming prosecutors abused racketeering laws.
On Monday (March 18), disgraced singer R. Kelly's lawyer was at the 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals convened in Manhattan, New York to appeal his conviction for running a decades-long scheme to recruit women and underage girls who sexually abused under the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act or the RICO Act.
Attorney Jennifer Bonjean argued before the three-judge panel that the plea federal prosecutors used to win those convictions was “absurd.”
“The government has expanded the RICO statute to a set of circumstances that is far beyond what the framers intended, which was to deal with organized crime,” Bonjean told the justices. “Now, we're talking about an organization with an alleged criminal, but not organized crime.” Bonjean also argued that he framed Kelly and those she worked with in an improper light related to the charges, which also included producing child pornography. “It was not a collection of people who were out to recruit girls for sexual abuse or child pornography,” he said. “Whether they turned a blind eye, if any of them suspected that any of these girls were minors, that's a whole different matter.”
Assistant United States Attorney Kayla Crews Bensing he argued on behalf of the government and denied Bonjean's allegations.
“The defendant had a system that lured young people into his orbit and then took over their lives,” he told the jury, pointing to evidence that those who worked with Kelly were aware of his intent and actions. “All of this is evidence that the jury was entitled to conclude that Kelly's inner circle knew what was going on: that she was recruiting and maintaining underage women for sexual activity,” Bensing said.
Bonjean also faced pushback from the judges. “RICO deals with organizations that are then used to commit crimes,” said Judge Denny Chin he said regarding Bonjean's RICO argument. “It doesn't have to be a criminal organization. It could be a perfectly legitimate organization. But if it engages in racketeering activity, it violates RICO.''
The panel is expected to rule on the appeal this week. While Bonjean has successfully won an appeal in a similar case to Bill Cosby, the chances of the 57-year-old singer's convictions being overturned are highly unlikely.
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Photo: E. JASON WAMBSGANS/Getty
