First Male Accuser Testifies in R. Kelly’s Brooklyn Trial: ‘He Said I Was Like a Brother’

The first alleged male victim took the stand at R. Kelly’s federal trial in Brooklyn Monday. The man, identified only as “Louis,” alleges that the R&B singer abused him when he was 17-years-old after promising to help him with his music career.

The man testified that he met Kelly at a McDonald’s drive-thru in a Chicago suburb in 2006. The embattled singer, who was 39-years-old at the time, initially invited him to a studio session but acted like he didn’t care for the man’s music. He subsequently invited Louis to a studio at his home.

Instead, Kelly brought Louis to a detached garage where the singer asked Louis what he “was willing to do for music.” He then asked him, “You never had fantasies about men?” 

Louis told Kelly no. “And then he crawled down on his knees and proceeded to give me oral sex. He zipped my pants down, and he started doing it,” he testified.

The indictments against Kelly identify two males who claim the singer sexually abused them. Louis is the first to accuse Kelly publicly. He is the fifth accuser to testify at the trial.

Louis testified that after the initial encounter, he and the singer had sexual contact several more times. Usually, Kelly recorded the abuse on an iPad and camcorders. He also asked Louis to call him “daddy.” Louis’ testimony is similar to the women who testified before him.

“As our relationship got stronger, he said I was like a brother. I was his little brother,” Louis told the court. He testified that he continued to see the singer due to his strong desire to make it in the music industry.

The last time he saw Kelly, he visited him at his house in Trump Tower. Kelly asked him to write a letter “to protect me and him.” Kelly dictated what Louis wrote and lied about someone paying him to say that he and Kelly were in a “homosexual relationship.”

After that meeting, Louis was later charged for trying to bribe one of Kelly’s accusers. He tried to keep the other victim from cooperating with the government. In February, he eventually pleaded guilty to bribery and agreed to testify against Kelly as part of the deal.

During cross-examination, Deveraux Cannick, an attorney for the defense, suggested that the plea was an incentive for Louis to testify.

Despite everything, Louis says he still aspires to make it in the music industry.