CHICAGO (AP) — Singer R. Kelly’s former business manager told jurors Wednesday he believed the singer’s denials of sexual misconduct that emerged against his boss, adding that he came to understand that fending off false claims was a cost of doing business for a superstar.
Derrell McDavid, a co-defendant at Kelly’s child pornography and trial-fixing trial in federal court in Chicago, said he saw no early signs Kelly sought minors for sex, blaming Kelly enemies and those hoping to profit off his fame for concocting the allegations.
Prosecutors ended their two week presentation to jurors before the Labor Day holiday, which included the testimony of four Kelly accusers who described him as a master manipulator.
McDavid and Kelly both face charges of conspiracy to obstruct justice that accuse them of rigging Kelly’s 2008 trial, at which the R&B star was acquitted. A third co-defendant, former Kelly associate Milton Brown, faces one charge — conspiracy to receive child pornography.
ADVERTISEMENT
McDavid told jurors he had seen the prosecution’s star witness — referred to by the pseudonym “Jane” at the current trial — when she was a minor hanging around Kelly’s studio in the late 1990s. He said Kelly angrily denied rumors that he was sexually abusing Jane, w