R. Kelly was so controlling of his young girlfriends, he had a list of “Rob’s rules” that dictated they must ask permission to do most things — and were forbidden from leaving certain rooms in his Chicago mansion, his former personal assistant testified in Brooklyn federal court Friday.
via: Daily Beast
“It was a weird time for me,” Anthony Navarro, who was one of Kelly’s low-level assistants for two years starting in 2007, told jurors in Brooklyn federal court. “The things you had to do were just a bit uncomfortable.”
“It was almost like the Twilight Zone. You went into the gate and it was just a different world. Just a strange place.”
Navarro, who went on to work with other high-profile musicians such as Jay-Z and Taylor Swift, spent hours describing the various bizarre tasks he had to do while working in studios located in Kelly’s mansion basement. Among the tasks he had to complete during his 12-hour shifts were: driving Kelly’s girlfriends, picking up packages, cleaning the singer’s house, and picking up food for anyone who was inside the Olympia Fields mansion.
“The music and production stuff was really good, all the other stuff was kinda strange,” Navarro, 36, said, adding that it was different from similar roles he held with other celebrities, which he described as “very professional.”
Navarro is among four witnesses who have testified for the prosecution during the first week of Kelly’s trial. At least five women are expected to testify in an anticipated month-long trial about the abuse they endured while involved with the once-revered Grammy-winning singer and producer.
Kelly, 54, faces a slew of charges, including racketeering based on kidnapping, sexual exploitation of children, and forced labor. He is also charged with violations of the Mann Act, which prohibits the transport of people across state lines for sex.
Prosecutors have alleged that Kelly abused at least six women and girls, four of whom were minors when he first slept with them. At least two also contracted herpes after Kelly knowingly exposed them to the disease.
Dr. Kris G. McGrath, a professor at Northwestern University and Kelly’s former primary care doctor, testified under subpoena on Thursday that he began prescribing the singer medication to treat herpes symptoms at least as far back as 2007. The doctor told jurors that he first became aware of the possibility Kelly might have herpes much earlier, after a June 5, 2000 visit.
Navarro was an assistant for Kelly during the same time period he’s accused of sexually assaulting Jerhonda Pace when she was age 16 and he was 42.
