Former R. Kelly testifies that women could not eat or leave their mansion without their permission

New York. R. Kelly he lived in an “Unknown Dimension” in which he controlled everything around him, including whether visitors to his mansion in the Chicago area could leave or order food, one of his former employees said Friday.

Anthony Navarro was summoned as a government witness at the sex trafficking trial in Kelly to illustrate what the dynamic was like inside the house where the R&B singer had a recording studio and a steady stream of female visitors.

The testimony reinforced the government’s claim that Kelly controlled everything around her and that it created an environment in which girls and women entering the site faced strict rules that left them no choice but to submit to sexual whims of the singer.

Being in the mansion “was almost like‘ The Twilight Zone ’,” Navarro said. “It’s a weird place.”

Navarro told jurors he never saw Kelly sexually abuse his victims, as alleged in the trial that began earlier this week in a federal court in Brooklyn. But there were “girls” who stayed a long time and couldn’t eat or leave without Kelly’s permission.

“There were times when they wanted to go, but they couldn’t because they couldn’t get transportation or we couldn’t communicate with Rob,” he said of the singer, whose full name is Robert Sylvester Kelly.

Navarro, who trained as an audio engineer, spent much of his time doing household chores for Kelly, such as transporting visitors to or from home.

“Most were girls going to the studio”, He said.

The statements come on the third day of testimony in a trial that is expected to last several weeks against a singer with three decades of career famous for hits like 1996’s “I Believe I Can Fly,” which became an inspirational anthem.

Kelly, 54, denies the allegations and her lawyers have portrayed her as a victim of women attacking her after the emergence of the #MeToo movement that has revised the relationship between celebrities and their fans.

The complainants ’stories had a big exposure in the Lifetime documentary series“ Surviving R. Kelly ”(available on Netflix). The series explores how the singer’s team supported him and silenced his victims for decades, foreshadowing the federal case for illicit association that landed Kelly in jail in 2019.