Prosecutors seek to keep identities of two alleged R. Kelly victims secret even from the singer, cite concerns of intimidation

Two alleged victims in R. Kelly’s sweeping racketeering conspiracy indictment in New York should remain anonymous even to the singer and his attorneys, federal prosecutors say, citing concerns that Kelly has a long history of intimidating witnesses.

In a court filing last month, prosecutors said they don’t plan to disclose the women’s identities to the defense until just two weeks before his scheduled May trial, accusing the jailed Kelly of “a significant egregious history of obstructive conduct.”

“It defeats fundamental fairness to not let us have access to who the alleged victims are,” he said. “Their argument that … Robert is going to reach out somehow (from) jail and claim that he’s going to talk to these people and threaten them is a baloney argument.”

Four of the alleged victims in the New York indictment have been disclosed to Kelly’s attorneys. Two had publicly spoken out about Kelly, a third is deceased and documentation routinely provided to the defense made clear the identity of the fourth woman.

To support their bid to keep the two other alleged victims’ identities secret from Kelly until so close to trial, the federal prosecutors in New York cited a 2018 letter purportedly signed by the singer that threatened to make public explicit photos of a woman who had filed a lawsuit against him.

The typewritten letter contained two photos of the woman “cropped for the sake of not exposing her extremities to the world, yet!!!” it warned.

Prosecutors called it “reasonable to conclude” that the letter had been sent at Kelly’s direction in an attempt to convince the woman to abandon the lawsuit.

“This type of conduct is strong evidence that the defendant, or members of his Enterprise, is likely to attempt witness tampering or other obstructive conduct if the identities of Jane Doe #2 and Jane Doe #3 are disclosed well in advance of trial,” prosecutors wrote in the filing.

Kelly’s attorney denied Thursday that the singer had anything to do with the letter.

Prosecutors also alleged that Kelly had “implicitly threatened” harm to multiple individuals and their families — including one as recently as 2018 — if they didn’t side with him.

Some women who went public with their accusations against the singer in last year’s bombshell Lifetime documentary series, “Surviving R. Kelly,” alleged that Kelly’s supporters have harassed and threatened them. Jerhonda Pace said she moved from Illinois after confrontations at Orland Square Mall. Asante McGee, who claimed Kelly controlled her every move when she lived with him in Georgia, said she feared leaving her house after receiving threatening messages on social media.

A follow-up to the series is scheduled to air this week on the cable channel.

Kelly’s mounting legal woes could result in his facing at least three trials in 2020 — in federal courts in Brooklyn and Chicago as well as in Cook County criminal court. He is being held in a federal Loop jail without bond in the meantime.

In Chicago’s federal court, he faces a tentative trial date in April on charges he conspired with two former employees to rig his 2008 child pornography trial in Cook County by paying off witnesses and victims to change their stories.

He is next set to go to trial in May in federal court in Brooklyn on charges he singled out underage girls attending his concerts and groomed them for later sexual abuse.

In addition, Kelly was charged in Cook County criminal court with four separate indictments accusing him of sexual misconduct over more than a decade. Three of those alleged victims were underage at the time. He could go to trial on the first of those charges in September at the Leighton Criminal Court Building.

If convicted in all the jurisdictions, the embattled singer, 52, whose full name is Robert Sylvester Kelly, could potentially face the rest of his life in prison.