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Accuser’s mom: R Kelly’s threats made her fear for her life

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Accuser’s mom: R Kelly’s threats made her fear for her life

CHICAGO (AP) — A mom whose daughter prosecutors say R. Kelly sexually abused beginning when she was 14 advised jurors Monday on the singer’s federal trial that she lied to a state grand jury 20 years in the past, partly as a result of she and her husband felt threatened by Kelly and feared for his or her lives in the event that they advised the reality.

The mother, who used the pseudonym, “Susan,” in courtroom on the trial in Chicago, described how she, her husband and Kelly had been crying when the mother and father confronted the Grammy-winner at a lodge within the early 2000s about whether or not he was abusing their daughter. She testified they had been startled when Kelly advised them, “You might be with us or towards us.”

She stated she took these phrases to imply “that they had been going to hurt us if we didn’t do what they needed us to do.” Among the many directives from Kelly and an affiliate was that they needed to lie that their daughter was not in a toddler pornography video and that they needed to depart the nation instantly for a number of weeks, she testified.

“We had been very, very frightened,” she advised jurors.

She added later that she lied to the grand jury “as a result of we feared for our lives and we had been intimidated.” She stated she additionally feared for the well-being of her daughter, who warned her mother and father on the time that she would possibly commit suicide in the event that they refused to do what Kelly requested them to do.

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Kelly, 55, is on trial in his hometown on fees that embody manufacturing of kid pornography, engaging minor women for intercourse and obstruction justice by efficiently rigging his 2008 baby pornography trial in state courtroom, at which he was acquitted.

Kelly is already watching a 30-year jail sentence imposed by a federal decide in New York in June for his 2021 convictions on racketeering and intercourse trafficking fees.

Susan’s daughter, who glided by the pseudonym “Jane,” was among the many prosecution’s first witnesses because the trial started final week. Jane advised jurors that she additionally lied to the identical grand jury previous to 2008 trial when she stated she was not the 14-year-old woman in a video with Kelly. Jane, now 37, advised jurors final week that, actually, she had been sexually abused a whole bunch of instances by Kelly earlier than she had turned at 18.

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On Monday, in an usually contentious cross-examination, Kelly legal professional Jennifer Bonjean repeatedly questioned Susan about whether or not she really felt her life was in any hazard from Kelly or his associates.

“Nobody truly threatened you, did they?” Bonjean requested.

“Sure, they did,” Susan answered.

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Bonjean additionally requested why, if Susan felt so threatened by Kelly, she and her household continued to combine with Kelly socially for the following 20 years. She answered that Kelly was their sole revenue for a interval, paying her musician husband to work on Kelly recordings. She additionally stated she fearful about Jane’s welfare in the event that they lower ties with Kelly.

The husband, Jane’s father, died final yr, she advised jurors.

Throughout her cross, Bonjean highlighted Susan’s testimony that she lied to the Illinois grand jury, asking if she was “telling the reality now.” Susan stated she was.

Prosecutors from the Prepare dinner County state’s legal professional’s workplace selected within the mid-2000s to push forward with fees and to take the case to trial in 2008 regardless of what they knew was a significant hurdle: their incapability to name the woman within the video to testify.

After acquitting Kelly within the 2008 trial, some jurors advised reporters that that that they had no alternative however to seek out Kelly not responsible as a result of the woman — who by then was in her 20s — didn’t take the witness stand to substantiate it was, actually, her within the video.

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Federal prosecutors on the present trial performed excerpts of that and different movies they are saying present Kelly when he was round 30 sexually abusing a 14-year-old Jane.

Kelly has been trailed for many years by allegations about his sexual conduct. The scrutiny intensified throughout the #MeToo period and following the 2019 launch of the Lifetime tv docuseries “Surviving R. Kelly.”

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Comply with Michael Tarm on Twitter at https://twitter.com/mtarm and discover AP’s full protection of the R. Kelly trial at https://apnews.com/hub/r-kelly.

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NBC Orders More Episodes of New Fall Comedy St. Denis Medical

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NBC Orders More Episodes of New Fall Comedy St. Denis Medical


‘St. Denis Medical’ Season 1 Episode Count NBC, More Episodes Order



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Mexico hot tub death: US tourist who was electrocuted remembered as ‘big family man’ who had 'heart of gold’

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Mexico hot tub death: US tourist who was electrocuted remembered as ‘big family man’ who had 'heart of gold’

An American tourist who died after being electrocuted in a hot tub while vacationing with his wife in Mexico is now being remembered as a “real big family man” who had a “heart of gold.” 

Jorge Guillen, a 43-year-old from El Paso, Texas, according to media reports, died June 11 “in the jacuzzi of a complex of private condominiums in Puerto Peñasco, Sonora after an electric discharge,” Mexican prosecutors say. His wife, Lizette Zambrano, 35, remains in critical condition after reportedly being transferred to an American hospital. 

“Our best friends have experienced a horrible accident. Jorge had a heart of gold and was always there for family and friends. The love they shared was one for ages,” reads a GoFundMe page set up for the couple. 

Video purportedly taken from the scene showed people screaming as they gathered around a beachfront hot tub following the incident. In the footage, a dark object could be seen bobbing around in the water. 

MAN KILLED AFTER GETTING ELECTROCUTED IN SEASIDE RESORT JACUZZI 

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Jorge Guillen and Lizette Zambrano are from El Paso, Texas, according to media reports. (GoFundMe)

Western Technical College – where Guillen was a student – held a moment of silence in honor of him Friday during a graduation ceremony, according to KFOX14/CBS4. 

“Those who knew George knew that he was enthusiastic. He was passionate. He loved HVAC. He was a real big family man. Definitely a very respectable, professional young man,” the trade school’s president, Maxine Valencia, said to the station. 

“We are just as saddened as the rest of the world about the passing of our beloved student, Jorge Guillen. The news reached us last night through one of Jorge’s classmates,” the school also wrote on Facebook. “Our thoughts and prayers are with his family and the family of his wife, Lizzette Zambrano, who remains in critical condition.” 

MEXICAN AUTHORITIES FIND BODIES OF 4 MEN, 2 WOMEN PILED UP IN RESORT CITY 

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Puerto-Penasco-Mexico

This September 2018 photo shows a beach at Puerto Peñasco in the state of Sonora, Mexico. (AP Photo/Annika Wolters)

Zambrano is described by the El Paso Times as being a former teacher in the Ysleta Independent School District. 

During the investigation, Mexican officials spoke with someone who is familiar with the couple, who said she saw the two of them were not moving in the jacuzzi. 

The witness also reportedly told investigators she attempted to get into the jacuzzi after discovering the couple was non-responsive, but she was shocked. 

Puerto-Penasco-Sign

Prosecutors in Mexico have launched an investigation into the death of Guillen and the injury of Zambrano in Puerto Peñasco. (PEDRO PARDO/AFP via Getty Images)

 

The witness told investigators that was the moment she called for help. 

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Fox News’ Greg Wehner contributed to this report. 

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Hundreds of thousands in France protest far right ahead of snap elections

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Hundreds of thousands in France protest far right ahead of snap elections

Anti-racism groups joined French unions and a new left-wing coalition in protests across France against the surging nationalist far right as frenzied campaigning is under way in advance of snap parliamentary elections.

About 21,000 police and gendarmes were deployed at rallies on Saturday with authorities expecting between 300,000 and 500,000 protesters nationwide, France’s interior ministry said.

In Paris, those who feared the elections would produce France’s first far-right government since World War II gathered at Place de la Republique before marching.

Crowds have been gathering daily in France, ever since the anti-immigration National Rally (RN) made historic gains in the European Parliament elections last Sunday. This prompted Macron to dissolve the National Assembly and call for a snap legislative election, to be held in two rounds on June 30 and July 7.

A large crowd turned out in spite of rainy and windy weather on Saturday holding placards reading “Liberty for all, Equality for all and Fraternity with all” – a reference to France’s national motto – as well as “Let’s break frontiers, documents for all, no to the immigration bill.”

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Speaking from Place de Republique, hard-left CGT union leader Sophie Binet told reporters, “We are marching because we are extremely worried [RN’s leader] Jordan Bardella could become the next prime minister … We want to prevent this disaster.”

Demonstrators march with placards during an anti-far right rally in Nantes [Romain Perrocheau/AFP]

‘Ideology based on fear’

Among the protesters in Paris, some also chanted “Free Palestine, viva Palestina,” and wore Palestinian keffiyeh scarves.

Among them was Nour Cekar, a 16-year-old high school student, who has French and Algerian parents and wears the hijab.

“To me, the extreme right is a danger because it supports an ideology based on the fear of the other, whereas we are all French citizens despite our differences,” she said.

Cekar added she will vote for the left-wing coalition because “it is the only political [entity] that addresses racism and Islamophobia.”

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Meanwhile, in the French Riviera city of Nice, demonstrators marched down Jean Medecin Avenue, the city’s main shopping street, chanting against the National Rally and its leader Bardella, 28, as well as President Emmanuel Macron.

Protest organisers said 3,000 took part, while police put the number at 2,500.

Nice is traditionally a conservative stronghold, but has, over the past decade, turned firmly in favour of Marine Le Pen’s National Rally and her far-right rival Eric Zemmour.

Nacira Guenif, a sociologist at University Paris 8, called the rise of the far right a “very dangerous situation”, and said many young people who attended rallies on Saturday denounced “the fascists”.

“This is a greater danger than ever. This is the first time where the far right rose to 30 percent of the vote in the European elections. The reason the youth and a lot of people were on the streets today is to say they don’t want this to happen in France,” Guenif told Al Jazeera.

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Demonstrators march in Nantes on Saturday [Romain Perrocheau/AFP]

Huge gamble for Macron

Reporting from Paris, Al Jazeera’s Natacha Butler noted the French president’s call of the election took everybody, including his own ministers, by surprise.

“Macron says he called this election because he has heard the voice of the people, of the voters. He said he’s seen the EU election that took place and saw that people are unhappy with his policies in this government. Therefore, he says he’s given the choice back to the people.”

The move is a huge gamble, she said. “People are here to say they fear the far right that would destroy France’s values of rights, liberty, freedom and equality.”

To prevent the National Rally party from winning the upcoming elections, left-wing parties finally agreed on Friday to set aside differences over the wars on Gaza and Ukraine and form a coalition. They urged French citizens to defeat the far right.

French opinion polls suggest the National Rally is expected to be ahead in the first round of the parliamentary elections. The party came out on top in the European elections last week, garnering more than 30 percent of the vote cast in France, almost twice as many votes as Macron’s party Renaissance.

Macron’s term is still on for three more years, and he would retain control over foreign affairs and defence regardless of the result. But his presidency would be weakened if the National Rally wins, which could put Bardella on track to become the next prime minister, with authority over domestic and economic affairs.

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French voters go to the polls first on June 30 and again July 7.

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