NY POST / PAGE SIX...

By RICHARD JOHNSON with PAULA FROELICH and CHRIS WILSON


MORE SORDID TALES OF R. KELLY

SHAMED singer R. Kelly has a long and sordid history of preying on underage
girls, according to a story in GQ magazine.

Among the more disturbing allegations made by writer Jim DeRogatis:

* The 14-year-old girl who had kinky sex with Kelly four years ago in a widely
bootlegged amateur porn tape is his "goddaughter" Reshonda Landfair, the
daughter of Kellys guitarist.

* When Kelly was romancing his 15-year-old protégé Aaliyah in 1994, he took
her to a suburban Chicago hotel room for a quickie marriage ceremony. Kelly
used a phony marriage certificate that listed her age as 18 and the two were
legally hitched. The union was later annulled, and Aaliyah was sworn to
secrecy and waived all civil claims against Kelly.

* Childhood friends of Kelly tell GQ that he was sexually molested by a
"trusted older man from the neighborhood," which may have contributed to his
abusive behavior as an adult.

While Kellys appetite for young girls was an open secret, if a thief
hadnt stolen a videotape from his gym bag four years ago in Chicago, he
might never have been arrested, because none of the underage girls he
allegedly
had sex with was willing to testify against him.

"The girls Kelly had seduced were more willing to settle than to testify,"
DeRogatis writes.

The "well-lit and crystal clear" stolen tape shows Landfair performing oral
sex
on Kelly. She also has intercourse with him and calls him "Daddy." (On
Kellys next album, "Loveland," one funky dance track is titled "Come to
Daddy.")

The Landfair family refused to cooperate with police, and then took a
2-1/2-month European vacation early this year, which led to speculation
theyd been paid off.

Landfairs aunt Stephanie Edwards -- who recorded under the name Sparkle on a
duet with Kelly called "Be Careful" -- told GQ:

"There have been too many girls to count. His whole M.O. -- he stated this to
me not long ago -- is he likes them when they are ripe and young because he
can
mold them into what he wants them to be and control their minds and make them
do what women should do. He needs to get some help. He needs to be
stopped."

GQ reports Kelly settled lawsuits from two other teenage girls, and that two
other cases are pending. Kelly faces 21 counts of child pornography, but
authorities have been unable to indict him on the more serious charge of
statutory rape without the cooperation of his victims.

NY POST
August 20, 2002
[This message was edited Tue Aug 20 19:17:33 PDT 2002 by Essence]

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