[ad_1]
A minister who officiated R. Kelly’s illegal marriage to singer Aaliyah told a Brooklyn federal court Wednesday that the nuptials took place in a hotel suite with the pair wearing “matching jogging suits.”
Nathan Edmond, 73, testified that he officiated the clandestine nuptials as a favor to a friend and did not know who the performers were, according to The Daily Beast.
“I didn’t think it was anyone special and I didn’t understand it at all,” Edmond reportedly told jurors at Kelly’s sex trafficking trial.
The singers both had one leg of their jogging suits rolled up to the knee during the Aug. 31, 1994, elopement, which lasted “about ten minutes or less,” Edmond said, according to the outlet.
Three other men were in the hotel room, one of whom approached the recently ordained minister with a non-disclosure agreement, which “made me kind of chuckle,” Edmond reportedly testified.
“It wasn’t worth the paper it was printed on,” Edmond reportedly told the court, adding that he said at the time an NDA “should have been a lot more airtight than that,” before agreeing not to talk about the wedding.
Jurors were reportedly presented with the marriage license, naming Edmund as the “elder,” which erroneously stated that Aaliyah was 18.
Prosecutors alleged that Kelly, 54, bribed an Illinois official to get a fake welfare ID after fearing the late singer was pregnant, and the marriage is a key part of their case as they seek to convict him of racketeering, kidnapping and sexual exploitation of children.
Kelly’s former tour manager Demetrius Smith told the court last month the defendant’s relationship with Aaliyah started after he began mentoring her in the early ’90s, and produced her debut album, which was dubiously titled “Age Ain’t Nothing but a Number,” according to the outlet.
“I just thought they were too playful, too friendly…he was seducing her,” said Smith, adding that the marriage alleviated Kelly’s concerns he would go to jail if she was pregnant.
“It shouldn’t have happened. It was wrong,” Smith testified.
Earlier in the week an accuser named “Addie” reportedly testified that she was sexually assaulted by the “Ignition” singer just two days after his marriage.
The then-17-year-old said the attack happened after a Miami concert, which she attended in the hopes of seeing Aayliah, according to The Daily Beast.
R Kelly, whose real name is Robert, has pleaded not guilty and denied allegations of wrongdoing related to his marriage to Aayliah, who died in a 2001 plane crash.
[ad_2]
Leave a Reply