Entertainment

A mother whose daughter prosecutors say R. Kelly sexually abused starting when she was 14 has testified at Kelly's federal trial in Chicago.

A woman who says she was sexually abused hundreds of times by R. Kelly before she turned 18 testified Friday that she agonized several years ago about whether to cooperate with federal investigators.

Among the most serious charges Kelly faces is conspiracy to obstruct justice by allegedly rigging a 2008 trial on state child pornography charges.

Kelly is charged in federal court in his hometown of Chicago with enticing of minors for sex, producing child pornography and rigging his 2008 pornography trial at which he was acquitted.

A federal jury has been impaneled R. Kelly’s to decide multiple charges against the R&B singer, as prosecutors and defense attorneys argued about whether the government improperly sought to keep some Blacks from the jury.

Jury selection in R. Kelly’s federal trial on charges that he rigged his 2008 state child pornography trial began Monday with the judge and attorneys quickly focusing on whether would-be jurors watched a 2019 documentary about sex abuse allegations against the R&B singer.

Anne Heche, the Emmy-winning film and television actor whose dramatic Hollywood rise in the 1990s and accomplished career contrasted with personal chapters of turmoil, died of injuries from a fiery car crash. She was 53.

Detectives looking into the crash had said narcotics were found in a blood sample taken from Heche.

Among the charges Kelly faces is that he rigged the 2008 trial by paying off and threatening the girl to ensure she didn't testify.

While Heche is legally dead, she’s on life support and “her heart is still beating” so it can be determined if she can be an organ donor.