R. Kelly victim blasts court for exposing her…
Being abused by R. Kelly for years was traumatic enough for Reshona Landfair. But what occurred to her in court during singer R. Kelly’s six-year little one pornography trial in the 2000s was another form of horror.
Landfair, the creator of new memoir “Who Was Watching Shorty: Reclaiming Myself from the Shame of R. Kelly’s Abuse,” out now, says neither her identify nor likeness had been redacted from legal paperwork — or hid during courtroom proceedings — as Kelly, nèe Robert Sylvester Kelly, confronted and was acquitted of fees stemming from a graphic video filmed in the late Nineties.
Troubling footage displaying her nude physique, submitted into evidence and shown repeatedly, featured the “Down Low” singer, then in his 30s, urinating on a 14-year-old Landfair’s face. She didn’t testify against Kelly at trial, which finally resulted in a not guilty verdict.
Landfair tells The Post that the unprotected use of her full identify and image during R. Kelly’s 2008 trial has adopted her throughout the years. Evan Jenkins for NY Post
Landfair, now 41, solely told The Post that even without taking the stand at the time, her life has been irrevocably affected by the publicity of her personal info.
“There was no professional setting that I could be in where that situation wouldn’t come up — or if I’m in a relationship or dating,” Landfair lamented. “It’s affected me in many areas that I don’t even speak about.”
Across the pages of her tome, the Chicagoan particulars the trauma she claims to have endured, first at the arms of Kelly — and then the legal system.
“I felt disgusted,” Landfair writes, describing the alleged illicit exploit. “I was still a virgin at that point, and I didn’t know too much inappropriately, but I knew this felt horribly wrong.”
“I was just his puppet at that point.”
Kelly made chart-topping hits, such as “I Believe I Can Fly” and “Ignition” during his heyday in the Nineties and early 2000s. Getty Images
A lawyer for Kelly — now age 59 and serving 20- and 30-year prison sentences in federal custody — lately launched a assertion, saying, in half, “At a younger age, Ms. Landfair was unfairly compelled into the public eye against her will by people that had been intent on destroying the popularity of R. Kelly. She didn’t deserve that.
“Mr. Kelly has no negative comments to make about her.”
In her ebook, Landfair claims she’d never watched the vile tape until she testified against Kelly during his 2022 racketeering and intercourse crimes trial. But she writes that, as a minor, she shortly discovered that her ID and underage body was not protected by the powers that be in the ‘08 case.
Landfair was just 12-years-old when she was first launched to Kelly by a close relative. Alamy Stock Photo
“Since my name was not redacted during Robert’s 2008 trial, that meant my first and last names were in everybody’s mouth, both in the courtroom and out,” Landfair pens. “The only minor saving grace was that people didn’t know how to spell my name.”
In Illinois, where the hearings had been held, the rape protect law, “states that the prior inappropriate activity or reputation of the victim is inadmissible as evidence,” per the Department of Justice’s National Institute of Justice. “The only exception to this blanket prohibition is evidence concerning prior inappropriate conduct between the victim and the defendant.”
Landfair wonders if her race turned a issue during Kelly’s 2008 trial. Evan Jenkins for NY Post
Landfair was not in court during the litigation.
“I could not know that jurors silently gasped or snickered while a gallery full of spectators did the same as they watched a child pornography video for a trial about child pornography,” she writes. “It’s painful to think about, even now.”
In the tell-all, she descriptively winces at the thought of strangers observing the footage as, “my young, naked, brown body was degraded and abused for free.”
“I wonder, if my body hadn’t been brown, would anyone outside of the jury have seen it exposed and abused? Would anyone even know my name?,” Landfair says, questioning whether or not race performed a position in the case.
In “Who Was Watching Shorty?,” Landfair takes readers on a more than 200-page journey through her alleged experiences as the 14-year-old lady in R. Kelly’s notorious videotape. Legacy Lit
She echoed those issues to The Post.
“In [Black] culture, we’re silenced on a lot of things,” said Landfair. “We’re made [out] to be girls who are ‘fast’ (or inappropriately precocious) because [our bodies] develop differently than other races.”
Landfair says it’s a stigma that has helped major entities capitalize on her misery for a long time.
“Podcasts have made money off of me for many years. Comedians have made money off of my trauma for many years,” she tells The Post. “The [entertainment] industry has made money. I’ve always been the face and the name that this situation draws back to.”
Now, even as a proud survivor of the abuse, Landfair admittedly finds it difficult, at occasions, to escape the trauma of the trial — as effectively as that of Kelly.
“When I walk into my job, every morning, his music is [almost always playing] on the loudspeaker,” said the college health counselor. “Chicago is very engulfed in [R. Kelly’s] career.”
Landfair tells The Post that writing her memoir has helped her really feel more “beautiful and self-assured” each day. Evan Jenkins for NY Post
“I have moments when I’m triggered. There’s a certain melody that will take me back to a place,” she continued. “But I’ve done the work. Now, I can hear the music, go back to that [negative] feeling, but push through it rather than feel anger.”
For Landfair, now a mom of one, the “work” that’s serving to her overcome the past consists of prayer, advocacy and self-love.
“Everything that I’ve been through molded me into the woman that I am today,” she insisted. “I’m becoming more beautiful and more self-assured day by day.”
“I’m here to turn my pain into purpose.”
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