Just over a month ago, Buzzfeed published a report from veteran music reporter and critic Jim DeRogatis detailing “cult” allegations against R. Kelly. Shortly after, another woman who claimed to have been involved with Kelly spoke about her experiences, as well, backing up many of the allegations in the original report. Now DeRogatis has spoken with yet another woman who claims to have been involved with Kelly for a second report on Buzzfeed. Jerhonda Pace, now 24, was at 15 an avid R. Kelly fan who attended court when he stood trial on fourteen counts of child pornography charges, and even defended him to news outlets. Later, she says she got to know Kelly personally after being invited to a party at his mansion, and their relationship soon became sexual.
Pace says Kelly invited her to come back to his mansion and sent an employee to pick her up in a black SUV. “He told me that he wanted me to undress for him [and] walk back and forth like I was modeling,” she says. The two then had oral sex and, Pace said in interviews with BuzzFeed News and her 2010 polygraph interview, Kelly made his first attempt to ensure that she did not talk about their sexual relationship by having her write out and sign letters stating that she had stolen jewelry and cash from him and that her parents had set her up to blackmail him. Pace says she did as instructed, but none of the charges were true.
On the next visit, on June 9, Pace says Kelly gave her an alcoholic drink he called Sex in the Kitchen, which is also the name of a song he released in 2005. “I was drunk, because I wasn’t used to alcohol,” Pace says. The two had intercourse; Pace says she was a virgin, and Kelly thought that was exciting.
Over the next seven months, Pace says she had sex with Kelly repeatedly, a claim she would later repeat during her settlement process. Without asking her permission, Kelly filmed most of the encounters on his iPhone or a video camera on a tripod, Pace says and a settlement draft reiterates. “I had to call him ‘daddy,’ and he would call me ‘baby.’ He wanted me to have two pigtails, and I had to go out and find little schoolgirl outfits.”
Pace says she claimed to be 19 when she met Kelly, but she did eventually tell him she was underage. This did not seem to deter Kelly:
[Pace] says she told him for certain that she was 16 on July 17, 2009, a claim she also made in the aforementioned documents. “I gave him my state ID,” she says. She recalls that Kelly told her things were fine, but that she should tell anyone who asked that she was 19, and act like she was 25.
Details Pace provides of her time with Kelly echo what other women involved with him describe as his abusive and controlling nature:
While she was in the mansion, she says, she had to follow Kelly’s “rules,” which included dressing in baggy clothes, turning over her phone, and asking permission to shower, eat, go to the bathroom, and leave the property. If she broke the rules, she says, she was mentally and physically abused.
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Pace says she ended her relationship with Kelly in January 2010 after the two had an argument when Kelly caught her texting a friend. “I was slapped and I was choked and I was spit on,” she says, a claim repeated in the settlement draft and corresponding polygraph.
Pace did not pursue criminal charges against Kelly after ending their relationship, despite feeling that she had cause to.
“If I was to get criminal charges, it would probably be like it was last time, where he wouldn’t get convicted,” Pace considered at the time.
Instead, Susan E. Loggans, a Chicago attorney with a reputation for specializing in settlements against Kelly, negotiated a cash settlement for Pace.
Within weeks of the meeting in Loggans’ office, the attorney had negotiated a large settlement with Kelly in return for Pace signing a nondisclosure agreement and declining to pursue any charges or other claims against Kelly.
Pace has now broken that nondisclosure agreement, and may face legal action for doing so.
The settlement Kelly made with Pace is one of numerous he’s reported to have arranged with other women. Kelly has released statements through his lawyer denying these and last month’s allegations, as well as going on video himself to call them “a bunch of crap.” He’s also vowed to keep playing shows, but some dates on his tour have been cancelled anyway, reportedly due to low ticket sales.
Earlier this month, a Georgia politician claimed there was new evidence against Kelly and called for a new criminal investigation of him, but local police denied the existence of any new evidence, and the District Attorney said that for the forseeable future, they wouldn’t be opening a new investigation.