Trial
How R. Kelly’s Sentence Could Impact Other Trials
R. Kelly could be in his 80s before the singer is free again, based on a 30-year prison term imposed this week by a New York federal judge for parlaying his fame to sexually abuse young fans, including some who were children. And if the 55-year-old loses at three related trials in coming months, he could be staring at decades more behind bars. That prospect, said one of his lawyers not involved in the New York trial, could lead Kelly to pursue a plea deal. Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news Here’s a look at the potential impact of Kelly’s lengthy prison term in New York on those other cases: What Is The Status Of The Cases? A federal trial in Chicago is slated to begin next, on Aug. 15. Chicago is Kelly’s hometown and where many of his acc...
Johnny Depp Completes Four Days on Stand, Says Defamation Trial Is His ‘Fight Back’
Actor Johnny Depp concluded a grueling four days on the witness stand Monday, telling jurors in a calm voice that he filed his libel lawsuit against his ex-wife because it was his best chance to reclaim his reputation, just hours after they heard audio clips of him berating his wife with coarse vulgarities. Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news “It was the only time I was able to fight back and use my own voice,” Depp said of his decision to sue Amber Heard for a 2018 op-ed piece in The Washington Post in which she refers to herself as “a public figure representing domestic abuse.” He continued to deny that he ever hit Heard, and accused her of hitting him and throwing items including paint cans and vodka bottles at him. And jurors heard an a...
Johnny Depp Testifies Ex- Amber Heard Attacked Him, He Never Hit Back
Actor Johnny Depp scoffed at the notion during court testimony Wednesday that his constant quarrels with ex-wife Amber Heard would ever prompt him to hit her, and insisted on cross-examination that her allegations devastated his career. “Violence isn’t necessary,” Depp said from the stand during his libel lawsuit against Heard, his second day of testimony. “Why would you hit someone to make them agree with you?” Heard has accused Depp of physically and sexually assaulting her on multiple occasions before and during their brief marriage. The former “Pirates of the Caribbean” star sued after Heard, who is also an actor, made an indirect reference to those accusations in an op-ed piece she wrote for The Washington Post. Depp addressed Heard’s accusations in detail Wednesday. Heard has said th...
Johnny Depp Takes The Stand In Defamation Trial, Says Amber Heard ‘Grossly Embellished’ Abuse Claims
Over the course of six years, Amber Heard has reiterated accusations that ex-husband Johnny Depp had an alcohol and substance abuse problem that led to him beating her in fits of rage and stupor. Depp, taking the stand for the first time on Tuesday in a U.S. trial on whether Heard’s accusations amounted to defamation, claimed that his ex-wife “grossly embellished” his “quote unquote substance abuse” and that there’ve been “no moments where I would’ve been considered out of control.” Depp continued: “A lot of it is just plainly false. I think that it was an easy target for her to hit because once you’ve trusted somebody for a certain amount of years and told them all the secrets of your life, that information can of course be used against you.” Eleven jurors considered Depp’s testimony on t...
Juicy Smolliét aka Jussie Smollett Heads To Trial This Week In Alleged Attack Hoax Case
HipHopWired Featured Video Source: Nuccio DiNuzzo / Getty Juicy Smolliét aka Jussie Smollett was initially cleared of any wrongdoing after charges of staging an attack were thrown out of court after his February 2019 arrest. On Monday (Nov. 29), jury selection has begun in the former Empire actor’s disorderly conduct case where he faces six felony counts. ABC 7 Chicago reports that Smollett’s trial takes place almost three years to the day he told the authorities that he was the victim of a violent attack near his Chicago home and hit with racist and homophobic verbal attacks. Prosecutors believe that the 39-year-old actor staged the attack based on accounts that two men were paid thousands to help Smollett arrange the attack. Cook County Prosecutor Kim Foxx’s office threw out the charges,...
R. Kelly Put On Suicide Watch After Conviction
HipHopWired Featured Video Source: Cook County Department of Corrections / Cook County Department of Corrections If you’re an R. Kelly supporter than you need to put in extra prayer for your boy. The feds placed him under suicide watch after his recent guilty conviction. As spotted on Raw Story the disgraced crooner has been going through it since the conclusion of his federal trial in New York. According to attorney Steve Greenberg the U.S. Bureau of Prisons put the “I Believe I Can Fly” singer increase monitoring right after he was found guilty for sex crimes and racketeering. Greenberg did make it clear that the Chicago native has not expressed any desire to kill or injure himself but this approach is common practice in the federal prison system. The lawyer confirmed that the provision ...
Penniless Piper: R. Kelly Says He’s Broke Weeks Before Trial Starts
HipHopWired Featured Video Source: Cook County Department of Corrections / Cook County Department of Corrections The wack juice continues to be poured on R. Kelly. He now claims his finances are in shambles weeks away from a major trial starting. As spotted on Page Six the Pied Piper Of Pee-Pee is in a place far more sunken that any of his fans or haters have imagined. Earlier this week he appeared in Brooklyn federal court for a hearing. During the proceedings his lawyer revealed that The R is hurting financially. “His finances are depleted,” said Devereaux Cannick. “I ask the court to give him daily copies of the transcripts.” He also stated that the Chicago, Illinois native has gotten severely out of shape while behind bars. “We need measurements for appropriate attire for his tria...
AGF: Ohanaeze legal monitoring group on Nnamdi Kanu not necessary
The Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, SAN, has said the legal team formed by the umbrella group for Igbo people, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, to monitor proceedings of the trial of leader of the prescribed Indigenous People of Biafra, Nnamdi Kanu, was not necessary. He, however, welcomed the Ohanaeze team, saying it was in line with the doctrine of the right of fair hearing rooted in Section 36 of the 1999 Constitution. Recall that the separatist leader was arrested in June 2021 outside the country. Kanu is facing charges bordering on treasonable felony instituted against him at the court in response to years of campaign for the independent Republic of Biafra through IPOB. He had been granted bail in April 2017 but jumped bail. After his re-arrest in June 202...
Obudu contract debt: Appeal court reserves judgment against Cross River
The Abuja division of the Court of Appeal has reserved judgment in the appeal filed by a private firm, Zedici Capital Ltd, against the Cross River State Government over a N3.8 billion contract debt. The appellant, Zedici Capital Ltd, is the firm that remodelled the Obudu Mountain Resort in Cross River State, now a subject of litigation. The three-member panel of the Court of Appeal, headed by Justice Peter Ige, reserved the date after counsel to the parties had adopted their legal submissions for and against the appeal, that is challenging the judgment of a High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), which had in 2019, refused to affirm the arbitral award to Zedici Ltd over its investment of N3.8 billion in the resort. Justice Ige announced that a date for the judgment would be comm...
How Nnamdi Kanu was arrested in Kenya – brother
The brother to the leader of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Kingsley Kanu, has said Nnamdi Kanu was nabbed while taking a walk in Kenya. While announcing the arrest of the IPOB leader last month, Abubakar Malami, Attorney-General of the Federation, had refused to disclose the location where he was nabbed. But Kingsley had issued a statement in which he said his brother was picked up in Kenya from where he was moved to Abuja. In an interview with UK Guardian, Kingsley said he spoke with his fugitive brother before his arrest. Kanu was standing trial for treason in Nigeria before he jumped bail. “His UK passport remains in Kenya,” The UK Guardian quoted him to have said. “I spoke to him on the phone, he was well, in Nairobi. His associates said he went out, he didn’t take...
Seven Indians, Nigerians docked for ‘cocaine importation’
The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency on Friday arraigned seven Indians and three Nigerians before the Lagos Division of the Federal High Court for allegedly smuggling 43.1 kilogrammes of cocaine into the country. The Indians include Shedrack Yurama; Singh Vikash; Kunnaserypallam Ashraf Inzam; Xaiver Fernando Santhanaria; Mandal Surjeet Ashok; Tandel Pratikkumar Pravinbai; and Barthwal Rohan Sunil. Their Nigerian alleged accomplices are Tobi Ojo; Kunle Animashaun and Omozusi Enorose Terry. Also arraigned before the court alongside the defendants was a limited liability company, Oilways Logistics and Energy Limited. The defendants were arraigned on a two-count charge of conspiracy and unlawful importation of cocaine. The defendants, according to the charge marked FHC/L/100c/2021, were ar...
Moderna starts human trials of an mRNA-based flu shot
Moderna gave its mRNA-based seasonal flu vaccine to the first set of volunteers in a clinical trial, the pharmaceutical company announced today. The start of the trial marks the next stage of the company’s work on this type of vaccine technology after the overwhelming success of its COVID-19 vaccine, which was built using the same strategy. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, mRNA vaccines were still largely experimental, even as they were heralded as the future of vaccine development. People who get an mRNA vaccine are injected with tiny snippets of genetic material from the target virus. Their cells use that genetic information to build bits of the virus, which the body’s immune system learns to fight against. The high efficacy of the mRNA COVID-19 vaccines made by Moderna and Pfizer / BioNTec...
