R Kelly prosecutors rest; defense calls on singer’s allies

By TOM HAYS
Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — Prosecutors at the R. Kelly sex trafficking trial ended their case after calling dozens of witnesses over the past month who detailed the government’s sweeping allegations against the singer in lurid detail. Several women and two men who were in Kelly’s celebrity orbit testified about how he groomed them for unwanted sex and psychologically tormented them mostly when they were teenagers. The defense began its case by calling former associates still loyal to Kelly in an effort to cast doubt on some of the accusers’ accounts of perverse misconduct spanning three decades. Kelly has denied any wrongdoing.