R. Kelly trial: prosecution rests after fourth accuser testifies singer sexually abusing her as a girl

****WARNING: This story contains details of allegations of sexual abuse of a minor****

Federal prosecutors rested their case Tuesday in R. Kelly’s federal trial in Chicago, after a fourth woman took the witness stand to testify the singer sexually abused her when she was a girl.

The woman, going by the pseudonym “Nia” on the stand, said she was only 15 years old when she met Kelly, asking for an autograph in a mall in Atlanta, testifying she told Kelly she was 15 on a phone call after meeting him at a mall in Atlanta.

Nia later detailed two sexual encounters with Kelly in 1996; one at a hotel during his concert tour in Minnesota, and another later the same year at his music studio in Chicago.

She said Kelly, knowing she was 15 at the time, invited her to meet him on his concert tour in Minnesota, and had his staff arrange travel from Atlanta. Nia said she told her mom she was staying at friend’s that weekend.

Nia told the jury that Kelly met her in her hotel room the morning after that concert, kissing her once on the lips, telling her to take off her clothes and walk towards him, proceeding to touch and kiss her breasts. She said he masturbated before leaving.

The second incident was at Kelly’s music studio, when she spent the following summer with family in Chicago.

She said she brought her cousins with her to the studio — including one who later testified she was there to protect Nia – but during a brief amount of time Nia was alone with Kelly, said he kissed and groped her.

In cross-examination, Kelly’s attorney asked Nia about a lawsuit she filed against Kelly in 2002, and settled out of court for $500,000. Nia said she reached a private attorney in Chicago and expressed interest in being a witness for the prosecution in his pending child pornography case at that time, but ended up with a lawsuit of her own.

Nia confirmed, when asked by defense attorney Jennifer Bonjean, that she never called the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office to offer to testify in that case. Kelly later was acquitted of those charges, and is now accused of rigging that trial by paying off and intimidating witnesses.

Jurors heard from more than two dozen witnesses for the prosecution over the past two weeks. Prosecutors said, in their opening statements, the jury would hear from five Kelly accusers, but the government rested its case after calling only four of those women to the stand – the pivotal witness “Jane,” “Pauline,” “Tracy,” and “Nia.”

Defense attorneys will begin presenting their case on Thursday. The judge said closing arguments could begin by the middle of next week.

Kelly, 55, is on trial on a 13-count indictment, including child pornography and obstruction of justice charges. Kelly’s former business manager Derrel McDavid and former assistant Milton “June” Brown are being tried alongside him, accused of scheming with Kelly to buy back incriminating sex tapes to help cover up his sex crimes and rig his 2008 child pornography trial in Cook County, at which Kelly was acquitted.  

Read more details on Tuesday’s testimony below