Famed R&B singer R. Kelly once made two of his girlfriends fight at a party after he saw them twerking for cake at a birthday party, and would make them turn to face the elevator doors if a man walked into the room while they were there, a former assistant testified on Tuesday.
‘He didn’t like that they were twerking for cake,’ Suzette Mayweather, who worked as one of Kelly’s assistants said at a federal court in Brooklyn on Tuesday, as the trial into Kelly’s sex crimes continues.
People have ‘twerked for cake’ in the past as a fun party game to see who would get the next slice.
Mayweather said that at a January 4, 2016 party Kelly had two of his girlfriends ‘get on each other’ or fight. Later, the Daily Beast reports, she said she could hear the girls ‘laughing or screaming’ and ‘thumping’ noises coming from upstairs, which she believed was them fighting.
Kelly reportedly later told her that while the birthday party only included females, he was upset one of his girlfriends’ cousins ‘leaned more on the masculine side.’
Mayweather is now the fourth former employee to take the stand against the Grammy Award-winning singer, all of whom have detailed the struct rules they and his girlfriends had to adhere to while near him.
His employees were supposed to enforce the rules, Mayweather said, and report any wrongdoing.
If they, themselves, did not follow the rules, at least three employees said, they would have their pay docked.
Suzette Mayweather broke down in tears on Tuesday as she recounted an argument she had with R&B singer R. Kelly while she was in his employ
Mayweather, left, considered Kelly, right, a ‘brother,’ but said she discovered a different side to him while working as his assistant from October 2015 to February 2017
Several witnesses have already described the bizarre rules they had to follow – including asking permission to use the bathroom, calling him ‘Daddy,’ wearing baggy clothing and facing the elevator doors if a man entered the room.
‘They did not move unless they had his permission,’ said Mayweather, who worked for Kelly from October 2015 to February 2017. ‘If there was a male present, I interacted with the male.’
She said she had thought of Kelly as a ‘brother,’ after knowing him for decades, but it wasn’t until she was working for him that she saw a different side to him.
Mayweather recounted to the jurors how Kelly once made her go get him sweet potato pie in the middle of the night, and when she returned to his Chicago studio – nicknamed the Chocolate Factory – Kelly told her: ‘I thought you were going to fail your test.’
Another time, she said, she got into an argument with Kelly because she spoke to one of Kelly’s girlfriends about their relationship.
Between tears, she said the conversation got so heated she decided to lie to Kelly about who initiated the conversation out of fear of repercussions for the girlfriend.
One of Kelly’s rules, she explained, was that no one could speak with his girlfriends about their relationship.
‘This particular incident was the first time… that I had ever seen Rob really that upset,’ she said, noting that she received a ‘fine’ for breaking the rule.
‘It was not the tone, it was the look in his eyes.’
After that, the New York Times reports, Mayweather alleged Kelly docked her pay and wanted her to ‘write a letter of apology.’
Kelly is charged with racketeering, sexual exploitation of a child, kidnapping, bribery and forced labor between 1994 and 2018
He has denied any wrongdoing and claimed the women were groupies who wanted to take advantage of his fame and fortune
Prosecutors have argued that the 54-year-old singer abused at least six women and girls, four of whom were minors when he first had sexual contact with them.
He is charged with racketeering, sexual exploitation of a child, kidnapping, bribery and forced labor between 1994 and 2018.
Prosecutors allege he ran a decades-long sex ring with the help of a network of associates and employees. One of the alleged victims is the late singer Aaliyah, whom witnesses say he provided with a fake ID after he feared he got her pregnant.
He is not being charged with rape or sexual assault, the Times reports, as the accusations against him fall outside the statute of limitation.
The racketeering charge, though, allows prosecutors to present evidence of any related potential crimes.
Kelly, who is best known for his Grammy Award winning song I Believe I Can Fly, denies all charges, claiming the women were groupies who wanted to take advantage of his fame and fortune.
He faces between 10 years and life in prison if convicted on all counts.
Kelly was seen keeping his head down as Mayweather spoke on Tuesday
Over the past few weeks of the trial, the jury heard several of his alleged victims discuss what their life was like living with Kelly.
Many of the sex-related misconduct allegations were discussed in the 2019 Lifetime documentary ‘Surviving R. Kelly.’
Following Mayweather’s testimony, another of his alleged victims took the stand, saying she was in a relationship with Kelly from March 2017 to February 2018.
‘He wasn’t always bad … [but there] were times when he would flip and then go super sexual hyper,’ the victim, identified only as ‘Faith,’ said.
On Monday, Kelly’s first male accuser testified that he offered him help with his music career in exchange for sexual favors.
The man, testifying under the pseudonym Louis, said he was 17 when Kelly first started making sexual advances at him.
Another woman, only identified as ‘Addie,’ also said she was once raped by the singer after a concert.
Others have testified that he had a woman hidden under a boxing ring at his house ready to perform sexual acts for him, and another alleged victim, only identified as Jane Doe 5, said Kelly coerced his girlfriends to write letters denying allegations of abuse after a 2008 child pornography trial.
‘The defendant would tell us exactly what to say,’ she testified, saying Kelly ‘would have other girlfriends make me write these letters. He said they would go to his attorneys, and they’d never see the light of day.’
In one of the letters, she said, Kelly told her to state she wanted to have sex with him, but he only wanted to be friends.
‘If you don’t bring me that d**k, then I’m going to say you raped me,’ she said she had to write. ‘I’m going to say you raped me since I was a minor.’
Assistant United States Attorney Maria Cruz Melendez alleged ‘he kept it in his back pocket in case anyone tried to accuse him of anything.
‘As insurance and away to make sure these women wouldn’t talk, [Kelly] created and collected collateral,’ she told the jury.
Kelly is best-known for his Grammy Award-winning song I Believe I Can Fly
Witnesses against Kelly have detailed the strict rules he employed on his girlfriends and employees, including having his girlfriends call him ‘Daddy,’ making them ask to use the bathroom and turning away when a man entered a room
His alleged exploitation of male and female employees has also come into question.
On Thursday, Tom Arnold, who worked at one of Kelly’s Chicago studios for eight years, said he eventually quit his job as studio manager because of the singer’s system for docking employee pay over such slights.
He said he once booked a male Disney World tour guide, despite Kelly’s alleged rule it ‘always had to be a female.’
It also broke Kelly’s alleged rule that his girlfriends could not be around other males or look them in the eye if they were in the same vicinity.
‘Nobody was available,’ Arnold explained to the jury, noting that another time, ‘We were all fined because someone ate his doughnuts.’