See Another woman comes forward accusing R. Kelly of statutory rape

R. Kelly (Credit: Getty/Michael Loccisano)

Another woman has come forward alleging sexual charges against R. Kelly. Jerhonda Johnson (now Pace) claims says she was just 15 when she first met the R&B singer during his child pornography trial in 2008. Pace told Buzzfeed News that she cut school every day during her sophomore year of high school in order to attend the trial. It was shortly after the trial that their alleged sexual relationship began. She was 16.

R. Kelly has denied Pace’s accusations.

Pace’s allegations arrive barely a month after a Buzzfeed investigation claimed that Kelly sustains a “sex cult,” housing multiple women in multiple homes, films his sexual encounters with them and dictates what they wear, who they talk to and even when they go to the bathroom. Three people described as “former members of R. Kelly’s inner circle” were sources.

“Pace says she is talking now — and breaking a signed nondisclosure agreement — because she is concerned about women still living with Kelly,” writes Jim DeRogatis, the reporter who received the child-sex tape that led to Kelly’s 2008 trial. DeRogatis has long documented the many sexual allegations against Kelly and was the author of last month’s Buzzfeed article.

“I didn’t have anybody to speak up on my behalf when I was going through what I was going through with him,” Pace told DeRogatis. “He’s brainwashed them really bad, and it kind of reminds me of Charles Manson.”

Pace said that after the child pornography trial, one of Kelly’s employees contacted her on MySpace to invite her to one of Kelly’s parties at his home. It was there that Kelly said he had noticed her at the trial and asked for her number, Pace said. Not long after the party, she allege, their sexual relationship began.

Pace claims that he ensured her silence “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,” Buzzfeed reported. “Pace says she did as instructed, but none of the charges were true.”

Pace says as their relationship progressed, the rules became stricter. She claims she was forced to call Kelly “daddy,” dress only in baggy clothes and ask permission before showering, eating, using the bathroom or leaving. Pace claims that not long after their sexual relationship started, she revealed she was 16-years-old, a year below the legal age of consent in Illinois. Kelly was fine with it, she told Buzzfeed.