The second accuser to testify against the disgraced R&B star said she was 17 when the singer pressured her for sex, as the second week of Mr. Kelly’s trial began.
When Zel was a 17-year-old aspiring singer, she was eager to meet R. Kelly, she said, and hoped that the R&B star could help jump-start her professional career. She received his phone number at a music festival and was told she could audition for him, she said. But after she arrived at his hotel, Mr. Kelly was interested in only sex, Zel, who testified under a pseudonym, told jurors as the second week of Mr. Kelly’s criminal trial began in New York. Zel said that Mr. Kelly told her that he needed to relieve himself sexually before she began to sing. “I was against it — I told him I did not come to please him,” she said. “He continued to persist and told me I didn’t have to do anything, just to take off my clothes.” As Mr. Kelly’s pressure continued, Zel, who had told him that she was 18, told jurors that she acquiesced and allowed the entertainer to perform a sex act on her. He told her that if she agreed, he would allow her to audition — and would “take care of me for life,” she testified. “I didn’t necessarily care for that,” she said. “I just wanted to sing.” As she recounted the story of her first meeting with Mr. Kelly, Zel, who is now 23, became the second accuser to take the stand against Mr. Kelly at the trial in Federal District Court in Brooklyn. She previously defended the singer publicly as recently as 2019, even as claims against him mounted, but later made her own accusations of sexual and physical abuse. She testified under a pseudonym because of privacy concerns, and her real name does not appear in court records. Another woman, Jerhonda Pace, told jurors last week that she and Mr.
