Black America Breaking News for the African American Community
Related Articles
R. Kelly is having a Bill Cosby moment. After years of speculation, women and their families are starting to come forward with specific allegations of sexual abuse by the Pied Piper of R&B, and the latest may be the most damaging yet.
A woman has come forward accusing R. Kelly of taking advantage of her back in 2008, when she was only 15. This news comes on the heels of the R&B singer allegedly being investigated for being the head of a sex cult.
According to BuzzFeed, Jerhonda Johnson met Kelly while on daily watch outside of his child pornography trial in 2008 in Chicago. She claims she lied about her age to get access to the trial, because she was under 18. The next year, when she was 16, she received a message on Facebook from someone on Kelly’s team and was invited to his Chicago mansion in January 2009. Soon after, a sexual relationship started.
BuzzFeed reports Jerhonda received “cash settlements from the star in return for signing nondisclosure agreements.” She claims he had strict rules in his house, which included only wearing baggy clothes, having to ask when to use the bathroom and not having access to a phone. If these rules were broken, she claims she was physically and mentally abused.
In 2010, she was able to escape Kelly when he caught her texting a friend and reportedly attacked her. She contacted an attorney, passed a lie detector test and took a settlement, which required her to agree to never talk about the case publicly. Jerhonda is breaking the agreement to speak out, and she is considering filing criminal charges against the singer.
Jerhonda is now 24 and a mother of three children and wants to help other women and girls who might be in the same situation she was when she was just a teenager. She told BuzzFeed, “I didn’t have anybody to speak up on my behalf when I was going through what I was going through with him. He’s brainwashed them really bad, and it kind of reminds me of Charles Manson.”
Get the latest on R. Kelly with BET Breaks, above.
Source link
