The first male accuser took the stand in the R. Kelly trial on Monday (August 30) and testified that the singer sexually abused him when he was 17.
The accuser, who went by “Louis” in the courtroom, is testifying under a cooperation agreement as part of his open bribery case.
Let’s pin this and revisit it later on in the post.
Louis met R. Kelly in 2006 while working the drive-thru window at a suburban Chicago McDonald’s.
Robert asked Louis to pass his phone number to his female co-worker. He did.
Then, the singer slipped Louis another piece of paper with his number on it.
Louis, who aspired to be a recording artist, gave the number to his mother and she called R. Kelly to see if she could get her son an audition.
R. Kelly invited Louis and his parents to a party at his Olympia Fields home and they went.
Louis even took a picture with the R&B superstar. But, after taking the photo, Louis says R. Kelly whispered in his ear:
Maybe it would be best if I come to the next party by myself.
Robert invited Louis back to the home to hear his music. He allegedly told the teen, “What you got?”
He played his demo and rapped over it. Louis told the court, “They said I sound pretty good…I’ve got potential.”
Louis returned to R. Kelly’s home studio again and recorded music with his engineer. Robert didn’t like the tune and Louis left the studio.
He stayed in touch with the singer and would meet up with him and his crew to shoot hoops at a local gym.
Louis told the court, he would often see girls on the sidelines dressed in baby clothes.
He went on to recall a time Robert invited him to his home to meet with some music colleagues, but when he arrived at the Illinois mansion, only the singer was there.
Louis said Robert took him to a detached garage that was made into a boxing ring.
We sat around and talked for a while.
He just asked me: What was I willing to do for the music?
Louis says he began rattling off tasks like “carrying bags” and he says Robert responded, “No, that’s not it.”
Then, R. Kelly asked Louis if he had any fantasies.
I said I got fantasies. I told him I had fantasies of two or three girls at one time.
He said, ‘You ever had a fantasy about a man?’ I said no. He crawled down on his knees and proceeded to give me oral sex.
I said I didn’t like it, I wasn’t into it. (R. Kelly stopped)
He just told me, ‘Keep it between me and him. We’re family now. We’re brothers.’
Louis said despite the unwanted sexual encounters, he would continue to meet with R. Kelly and go to his parties because he was dedicated to having a music career.
I really wanted to make it in the music industry.
The encounters continued and Robert recorded them. He says the singer asked him to call “Daddy.”
He even recalled a time when Robert brought in a girl to please them sexually.
I was uncomfortable.
It’s unclear how long the encounters continued, but Louis and R. Kelly remained in contact until 2018 and they often played basketball together.
Louis said the last time he saw R. Kelly was at Trump Tower, where he was asked to write a letter “to protect me and him.”
He told me word for word what to say.
The letter falsely suggested someone was trying to pay Louis off to say that he and Robert were having a “homosexual relationship.”
Now, back to the bribery case…
Louis was one of R. Kelly’s associates who was arrested over the past two years for trying to bribe a potential witness not to testify against the singer.
Richard Arline, Jr., Donnell Russell, and Michael Williams were the three men charged in the bribery case.
The witness was cooperating with the government and was recording her conversations with Louis.
Via USA Today:
Arline, Jr., a self-described longtime friend of Kelly, is charged with attempting to “corruptly persuade the testimony” of an accuser identified as Jane Doe by offering her $500,000.
With the accuser’s consent, prosecutors recorded phone conversations between her and Arline Jr., during which he offered her the money to keep her from cooperating with the prosecution.
Louis is now testifying under a cooperation agreement and if he tells everything he knows about R. Kelly – the government will write a letter to the judge overseeing the case to give him a more lenient sentence.
Louis told the court he did not want to testify because he still has musical aspirations and he didn’t want to ruin his reputation in the music industry.
But, he was forced to as part of his agreement.