My name is Jerhonda Pace,
and I was with Rob for six months
when I was 16 years old.
KANIKA "KITTI" JONES: My name is Kitti Jones,
and I was with R. Kelly for two and a half years.
ALICE: Our daughter Azriel Clary
has been with R. Kelly about three years now.
MICHELLE: My name is Michelle W. Kramer.
My daughter Dominique has been in his life for--
off and on-- for nine years.
♪ ♪
(fans cheering)
-(crowd cheering) -REPORTER: The jury is deliberating
in R. Kelly's child pornography case.
KIM JANSSEN: Everyone in the courtroom thought
he was gonna be found guilty.
CRAIG WILLIAMS: Rob was very scared
of going to jail.
KATHY CHANEY: When they said "Not guilty,"
every reporter's face was like...
ANDREA KELLY: Robert, you know the turmoil you brought
into my kids' life, and for that,
you can go to hell.
JERHONDA: After Robert's trial,
his friend sent me a message
and invited me to R. Kelly's party.
I didn't tell anyone I was going to his house.
And I said, "I'm a virgin,"
and he said, "Well, that's perfect."
Dominique and I had met on MySpace
based on liking R. Kelly.
MICHELLE: She had a girlfriend that called me and said,
"Nikka has been seeing R. Kelly."
I said, "Give me his phone number."
I said, "R. Kelly, this is Michelle Kramer.
Stay the (bleep) away from my daughter."
ANN POWERS: At that time, R. Kelly wasn't at the top
of his game commercially,
but he still held a place
in the heart of people
in the media.
Certainly, fans.
And he was sort of a, you know, a cult figure.
And for better or worse, his transgressions,
in some ways, solidified that status.
R. Kelly has asked a lot of us to forget about
Aaliyah, forget about the sex tape,
forget about the trial.
R. Kelly is innocent.
NEWS ANCHOR: R. Kelly was arrested in Polk back in 2002
on child porn charges, though he was later acquitted.
FORMER EMPLOYEE (distorted): It made him, you know,
feel that he can continue to get away with those type of acts.
My only daughter.
I thought she was fine.
She went on prom. She got a job.
She was doing what she was supposed to do as a teenager,
and, um, we end up moving
to the north side of Chicago.
I went to Kaplan College for, um, medical billing and coding,
and she went for dental assistant.
She was doing her own thing, and then all of a sudden,
she came home and said,
"I haven't been telling you the truth."
And I said, "What you mean?"
"I had still been seeing him.
And he asked me to move to Atlanta."
Now at this time,
she about 21, 22.
What can I do? She's grown.
I didn't want to lose my daughter to him.
I had to make the hardest choice:
Go against her...
or give her my blessing.
All I could do was pray and hope one day
that she just wake up and just come home.
I was with R. Kelly for six months when I was 16 years old.
I didn't see my friend Dominique in the house,
but I knew Dominique was there because me and her
used to always try to meet up in the house
and it never worked out.
Rob always kept us separated.
I would be isolated.
I felt like a prisoner.
It's, like, I didn't have anyone to, um, talk to. It was just me.
I went into a depression.
I was mentally drained
'cause he would break me down, then build me up,
then make me feel like (bleep) again,
and do it all over again.
So it was-- He would really manipulate my mind.
The breaking point for me was when
Rob slapped me and he choked me until I blacked out.
He was about six feet tall,
and I'm only five-one and a half,
and he lift me up and I was, like, eye level with him,
and then I remember just blacking out
and I-I hit the floor.
That was the straw that broke the camel's back,
and that's why I had to walk away.
After that incident happened between us,
I powered my phone off and I left,
and I never looked back.
Knowing that Dominique is still in the house,
it's very painful to know that she's still
experiencing all of those things
that she was experiencing when I was there.
She just deserves better,
and I don't want her to be there anymore.
She should have a better life.
I do know of someone who tried to help
one girl in particular get out of the house.
There was a staff member who tried to help Dominique.
It was a situation where Dominique expressed
how she was being mistreated.
To Robert,
Dominique is, like, the rebellious one.
She stays in trouble to him.
She's a little tomboyish, and Robert plays on that.
So he has molded her
into the boy he wants her to be.
So he's had her shave all her hair off,
and she carries herself like a boy.
He's even had her dress in boy clothes
and paint the-the beard and the mustache on
to look like a boy.
So he treats her like his boy toy.
My name is Timothy Savage.
My daughter was off in college at the time.
I haven't seen her since.
My daughter's severely brainwashed.
She's brainwashed to the point where, um,
she says anything that he asks her to say.
Uh, she-she's not the same Joycelyn that we knew.
Stockholm syndrome, that's what my daughter has right now.
We both was blindsided.
We didn't know it, but the storm was coming.
It was never for my daughter
to-to get in touch with this man, not one time,
without me or my wife being present.
Joycelyn was a-- She was kind of shy,
you know, she was a loner, she liked to stay to herself.
But when it came on to music or modeling,
she turned on like a flash, like a butterfly.
At the early ages of life, she was always wanting to do this.
One night, I got off from wor,
she came downstairs and she was singing.
I said, "Is that Joycelyn?"
And I said, "She could sing."
This was probably about ten years old.
JONJELYN: When we met Mr. Kelly, we went in strictly
for a professional relationship.
I think that R. Kelly could've helped
put my daughter in the right position
to help her make her a star
because he had a lot of influences
with the record labels and, uh, he's created
big hits with a lot of people.
I think it was back in 2008,
we did hear some type of, you know,
allegations that he had, uh, a trial that was going on,
but, uh, the courts found him not guilty at that time,
so we didn't think nothing else of it.
JONJELYN: December, fall of 2016,
she had told us that
she studied, that she, you know, passed all her exams,
and she was looking forward to the next semester.
TIMOTHY: We felt like we started to disconnect
in, uh, 2016,
late fall.
I was going to, um, register Joycelyn
for the, uh, next semester, and I needed to talk to her.
JONJELYN: I wasn't able to get in touch with my daughter
for three days straight,
but I was able to track down her--
one of her roommates that she was really close with,
and this particular roommate
said that Joycelyn hadn't been at the dorm for a few days.
TIMOTHY: So we end up-- We said, "Hey, something is going on.
This a red flag." And then we got a call
from her, and she told us that she was with R. Kelly.
We was like, "What are you doing? You're in,
"you're in college. We had this discussion.
"I thought you was headed in the direction
that you want to go in."
And she told me that she didn't know
what she wanted to do at that point.
Weeks went by
with no answers. It was like a dead, silence tone
when I'd call.
It has been over almost two years now,
and we still haven't seen our daughter.
When the Savages first came out
talking about Joycelyn, R. Kelly had meetings
to strategize to fix the situation.
So the first thing was to put
Joycelyn in front of the camera on TMZ,
which is something he ordinarily would not have done,
but because they said that Joycelyn was being held
against her will and all of that stuff,
he had to clean it up.
INTERVIEWER: You are not being held against your will?
Oh, n-no. Not at all.
Never been feeling hostage or anything like that,
in that nature, never.
FORMER EMPLOYEE: As far as the video
that Joycelyn Savage made,
I would say that it was scripted
because Robert does not allow those girls
to say anything that he has not told them to say.
TIMOTHY: Yeah, you see shadows in the background,
showing someone saying, "Cut," on her shirt.
INTERVIEWER: Are you free to go from where you are?
JOYCELYN: No, uh, I won't speak on that as well.
It made me feel horrible
that you see somebody doing this in a shadow
going in the background.
That's a control, like she's locked up
in a jail cell.
I really think it hit me when I, when I saw her face
on, you know, TMZ.
I could tell that she was not the same Joycelyn
who was raised up to be.
How can he just sit here and ruin these little girls?
Like, you-you can't--
Like, I feel like he has no heart.
POWERS: When the ball started rolling down the hill again
for R. Kelly,
there was a piece in BuzzFeed,
there was something in The New Yorker.
The story had hit the mainstream in a new way.
BuzzFeed has published an explosive report
detailing accusations against artist R. Kelly.
NEWSWOMAN: According to the report,
he's keeping a household of young women
in a cult-like atmosphere.
REPORTER: The accusations coming from a nine-month-long
investigative report.
The article quickly becoming
one of the top trending items on social media.
From the time that the Savages came out,
shows started to get canceled.
He has lost money from his bookings,
so the stories, they have
affected his livelihood, and he knows that.
I want everybody around the world to know,
ain't no tours canceled, man, all right?
Despite what you hear, don't believe the hype.
I haven't canceled not one show.
INTERVIEWER: You stand by your words, you know,
R. Kelly's not holding any women hostage
or he doesn't have a sex cult or...?
Um, no. None of that is true. None of that is true.
All of that is false accusations.
You know, people talk all the time, you know.
It's just rumors.
Yeah, I'm out here in L.A., you know, just vacationing,
and he's in Chicago.
INTERVIEWER: Oh, cool. You're doing your own thing right now.
Mm-hmm. Yeah. Doing my own thing.
MICHELLE: When I saw the TMZ video,
I looked over and it was my daughter Dominique.
She was very unrecognizable
because how her hair was and she was all
tattooed up.
So I could see they was in Beverly Hills,
and I just put two and two together
that that's probably where she's staying.
So I spoke with the producers,
because I was already coming
to L.A. to do the documentary.
And so I convinced them to...
take me to Beverly Hills
to locate my daughter.
♪ ♪
PRODUCER: What are you doing right now?
MICHELLE: I'm just looking out the window.
She might be walking down the street.
You can never replace a mothe.
Never.
When they sick, we take care of them,
We ain't never know that.
That's a mother.
Not sayin' fathers don't do it.
But this one... I did all that.
So you can never replace that.
One of the things she told me, she told me never to give up.
So me coming to L.A.
and not trying to even try to find her...
I'm not giving up.
I'm not.
♪ ♪
TARANA BURKE: After the trial,
R. Kelly has had huge performances--
particularly, again, in black spaces.
He's had the Soul Train Music Award tribute to Sam Cooke.
NELSON GEORGE: The 2010 performance,
the Epic soul extravaganza,
is definitely his attempt to come back.
He was making, also, a plea
to black adults.
That's why I think he did the '50s thing.
When I watched it, I said,
"This is an incredibly calculated performance."
And the messaging of it is really interesting
in light of where he was in his career, and that is,
"I'm not being a youthful pop star.
"I'm your guy.
I'm part of everything you are."
TRACII McGREGOR: He dropped Love Letter.
And that record didn't do
very well, either. It did better than Untitled,
but when you're looking at, like, the breadth of his work,
it paled in comparison.
And still-- He's still, you know, working in the industry.
I mean, R. Kelly wrote most of the songs
for the Sparkle soundtrack.
He did a song for Whitney Houston,
"I Look to You,"
which did fairly well for her.
R. Kelly, with his... mmm... genius,
wrote this song for me many years ago.
Spiritually, it... connected with me, very much.
By the time Whitney Houston dies, you know,
his reputation is pretty bad.
We all know about the sex tapes.
A lot of the stuff about the abuse of women is coming out.
It's been pretty consistent.
So for him-him to even be
at Whitney's funeral is kind of like...
I'm sure some people were very upset about that.
He seems nervous when he gets up there, because...
Maybe he's even aware that-- the enormity of what he's doing
and how potentially inappropriate it is.
And how many of those people are judging him in that audience.
♪ I look to you... ♪
(choir vocalizing)
And yet he wins the crowd, because of
the purity of his emotion.
And you see the pastors,
who stand up during the song
to sort of accept his testimony.
And it's very powerful.
We love you, Whitney.
Rest in peace.
BURKE: When he has these moments,
it elevates him to a status in our community
that-that really is protected.
♪ ♪
DR. JODY ADEWALE: Our society tends to compartmentalize
the things we don't want to look at
and magnifies and glorifies the things that we do.
For example, if an individual is providing something
to the society--
as music, cinema, politics--
we're more likely
to compartmentalize their negative behavior
and minimize it,
as a way of accepting what they are contributing.
BURKE: We don't want to let go of R. Kelly
because it means let going of all of that catalogue of music
and the memories that go along with it.
Whether you sang "I Believe I Can Fly" at your graduation
or you "Stepped in the Name of Love" at your wedding,
people don't want to let that go.
His music is black music.
It crosses over, but he targets the black people.
And as a people, we forgive.
And-and keep forgiving you.
That's the church in us.
But now it's like,
we have gone from stories
that could be dismissed...
They just want to bring him down, to kill his image.
POWERS: ...to stories about women
who were being kept from their parents.
♪ ♪
PRODUCER: Kind of looks like the (bleep) over there.
-Where? -Right...
Um...
PRODUCER: All right. Let's go.
MICHELLE: In my heart, I know she's there.
And... I know she's there.
My plan is just to go into the hotel
and just, basically-- it's Mother's Day weekend--
and say, "Can you have her come down? There's a package here."
They said no, there wasn't no Gardner there.
But I didn't get to L.A. not to find my daughter.
-(men chatting indistinctly) -MICHELLE: Could I ask you...
could I ask you a question?
So I saw this black guy outside,
like maybe a doorman or something,
and I described Dominique to him.
And he said, "Try the one across the street."
And I did not know it was a whole nother hotel
of the same name across the street.
♪ ♪
Oh! I got company.
All right, how are you guys?
KANIKA: Back in 2011,
I was a radio DJ in Dallas.
Um... and I had met R. Kelly at an after-party
while he was on the Love Letter Tour.
I proceeded to introduce mysef
and let him know that I was from the radio station.
He proceeded to ask me how old I was.
Told him I was in my 30s,
and he was shocked.
He just kind of sized me up a little bit,
from head to toe, like, what I looked like.
And we were just kind of
shaking hands really slow
and that's when he slipped me the phone number.
♪ ♪
Long distance was a hard thing for both of us, so...
I quit my job
and moved to Chicago.
I didn't just pack up and leave
just because I loved him, it was a two-way thing.
Rob absolutely told me that he loved me, all the time.
I was visiting Dallas and a friend of mine said,
"Um, you know, have you ever watched
the sex tape?"
And I was furious with her
and I felt disrespected, because...
at this point, this is my boyfriend.
Not only that, I just felt like if you have respect for me
you wouldn't be bringing up something that
people are gonna always make fun of him over.
I'm-I'm offended as well.
But my curiosity
just kind of got the best of e
and I googled it.
And, um...
...when I saw the images,
um...
(sobs)
The images were...
...the same girl that he had introduced me to,
um...
a couple weeks before.
I knew ex-- I knew immediately it was the same woman.
Um...
I just didn't know how to feel.
I-I guess I felt like I was tricked into something.
All at the same time.
It was just...
a bunch of emotions coming over me, like,
am I really with someone that did this?
KANIKA: I called him.
And... I was very upset.
He could hear me crying and I said,
"My friend sent me the tape," or something like that.
I didn't want him to know that I went looking for it,
so I carefully worded it
so he didn't think that
I went looking for a tape.
The tape that he went to trial for.
He just began, like,
saying things to me
that I'd never heard before.
Like, "Bitch, don't ever accuse me
of some (bleep) like that ever again."
And "Who are you listening to?
"Get your ass back.
I'm (bleep) you up." Things like that.
And I was just...
scared.
♪ ♪
He beat me in the car when I got back.
That was the first time he was very physical with me.
Not only do I need to save face for myself,
I need to protect him, too,
because now I loved him, I love him.
And now he knows that I know this secret.
And I need him to understand that I'm not gonna tell anybody.
♪ ♪
I felt trapped.
On the inside, I was like,
"Who am I dealing with?"
Like, who is this person that I'm lying down with?
Is he doing this secretly?
You know?
And I'm of age. Am I just a beard?
I didn't know.
I just...
I just knew that
when we were the car and he was lashing out at me
and-and slapping me repeatedly,
and I just kept telling him I was sorry
and that I... I wasn't accusing him of anything
and that I didn't believe it.
At this point, there's no turning back.
And I just-- I wanted to make it work by all means.
But...
he would beat me
when he was upset with me.
There's a period that--
He calls it "training you."
He used those words with me plenty of times.
I didn't understand
that training me was, like, okay, let me...
let me put this out here and see if she...
is comfortable with that.
You definitely had to ask to go to the restroom.
Stand up when he walks in the room.
You had to ask for your food.
I was not allowed, by Rob, to watch TV back then.
Dance Moms was a show that he would look at,
ironically, with little girls dancing or whatever.
But I never saw any reality shows on VH1
or anything that was negative
or might have anything that would,
I guess, pertain to him
or put any negative thoughts.
ADEWALE: The perpetrator might
isolate an individual.
It's easier for a perpetrator to abuse--
sexually, physically, financially, emotionally
abuse the individual
when that individual is separated from their family,
when that individual doesn't have resources.
He or she can, um,
essentially do whatever he or she wants to that individual.
The... the victim often believes
"I have nothing else."
Yeah, they had a lot of rules
that they had us abide by.
PRODUCER: What does it mean to be in trouble with Rob,
for one of the girls?
FORMER EMPLOYEE: Being in trouble with Rob
would mean being confined to a room
for several days.
Being confined on the tour bus
for several days.
Having their devices taken.
Cell phones taken away.
And even being spanked.
Being on punishment could be...
either you're not getting food
or you took a beating
and he's not talking to you.
It was just a...
a-a-a molding and shaping me
into this person
and then, once I realize
this is what it's become,
it's too late and I'm in it.
FORMER EMPLOYEE (crying): I'm sorry.
Because when you talk about it,
you realize how sick and twisted it really was.
And when I first met those girls...
(sniffles, exhales)
When I first met those girls,
I judged them, not him.
My first response to myself was,
"These bitches are crazy,"
because I saw them jump up and kiss him,
one behind the other,
and I knew what was going on behind closed doors
as far as them not being able to eat when they wanted to,
not being able to move around.
Until I started to not just look at the situation,
but I started to also listen to what he would say
to make them act that way.
KANIKA: The summer of 2012,
he was putting together The Single Ladies Tour.
I was just kind of at my wit's end to leave,
and, um, he kind of reeled me back in by asking me to go
-be the cage girl. -(audience cheering)
It made me feel special that, "Okay, this is us
working on the relationship,"
some of the promises that he made, um, before, you know,
me even moving or-or making up my mind to move.
So, we practiced that.
And the lights were gonna go dim,
and then the spotlight would be on me
with him on his knees singing to me,
and then he opens my legs and goes down on me
while I'm in the seats.
(fans screaming)
JOYNER: He did this 30 years ago.
He was on stage at the Essence Festival.
Same act, with the bed, grabbing his crotch,
all of that-- simulating sex.
He hasn't changed.
We would run up to the stage together,
and then one of the guys would hand me
a fake contract, and then I would be looking at it like,
"Oh, my God, I'm about to sign this to let him
do what he wants with me."
And I just remember him sayin,
"This is what I'm gonna have you do when we get home.
"Make up a contract
so I can protect myself."
FORMER EMPLOYEE: He does make
the girls write statements with false accusations
against themselves.
Either saying that they've stole something from him,
or that their parents have stole something from him,
or even that the parents tried to bribe him,
or something of that sort.
I would call the false statements
some type of insurance.
And I would even say, in addition to the statements,
the fact that he videos everything that they do
when they are being sexual with him,
I see the videos as being something
that he can hold against them or hold over their heads.
KANIKA: The tour ended middle of December
of 2012.
He introduced me
sometime in February, and my life
just got turned upside down after that.
Sexually, it was always one or two girls.
At the most, it was three.
I just had to block it all out, you know?
Because the sexual part of it is just so humiliating
and degrading, and it makes you feel, um,
like, if you say no, like, what the consequences are gonna be.
He was preparing for the Black Panties album, mainly.
And my last straw
was being starved.
I think I was going on day three.
I hadn't eaten the whole day,
and I just remember glancing over at him
and just making, like, a subtle movement, and he said,
"Don't stare at me while I effing eat."
And I said, "I'm not staring at you."
Like, I had no fear of him anymore.
It was just starting to build up,
and I just started thinking of ways to, like,
either end my life or end his.
It's difficult for people who aren't in these contexts
to understand. "Well, why wouldn't she just leave?
Why wouldn't she just go eat something?"
But again, it's been a process over time
where this relationship is the most important relationship
in her life.
She won't do anything to risk that relationship
and attention that she'll get from that person.
So it can be quite powerful.
KANIKA: The next day,
um, even though
all this had built up for me to leave,
and I felt strong when it came to me getting to the airport...
(sniffles)
...I didn't want to go.
Um...
I was afraid of what I was gonna have to face when I got home.
Because I was so scared
of what people were gonna say and think,
and how they were gonna judge me and, like,
"What happened? Why are you back?"
DR. KHADIJA MONK: The number of times
a domestic violence, um, survivor leaves
is between seven and ten times
before they permanently leave.
And that is because
of the power and control that the abuser has.
KANIKA: So when I got to the airport,
it was so scary.
I remember trying to call him, and text,
and I kept telling myself,
"If he picks the phone up, I'm going back,"
because I wasn't ready like I thought I was.
He never picked it up.
MICHELLE: I didn't get to be a mother
all this long not to be a detective.
Yes, please.
MICHELLE: The hotel manager, he was like,
"Um, I'm-a take you to her room."
I was like, "Oh, my God."
So, I was getting nervous.
I-I can't e-- I don't have no words,
'cause it's just overwhelming.
(knocking on door)
(Michelle laughs softly)
Baby. Oh...
Okay. Yeah, we good. Thank you.
Thank you.
No, you made this the best Mother's Day ever.
You don't understand.
(panting)
(crying): Oh, my God.
I found her.
I found my baby. God is real.
(sobbing)
Thank you, God.
Any man that don't let their mother
see their child, the child see their mother,
and she's still living, you ain't got no heart.
I saw my daughter.
I hugged my daughter, I kissed my daughter.
And she said that your daughter was in the room.
NORCOTT: Things that can support girls
and women getting away from abusive situations:
one is time, one is reminding the girl
that she has her own identity,
that she's cared for, that she's loved.
You've seen parents put out media blasts in different ways,
reminding the girls that they're loved,
and the hope is that something will get through, right?
Or that there may be a period where a girl
will be questioning her current situation, may reach out,
may do a Google search and find a YouTube video
of a-a message from her parent.
MICHELLE: Hold on, hold on.
Okay.
Okay. Oh, she want to talk to me.
I got to go. Bye.
My daughter want to talk to me. Bye.
Hello?
Hey. Don't cry, don't cry.
Don't, don't, don't cry, okay?
(sniffles)
PRODUCER: Feel like she was happy to see you?
She couldn't show no emotion, probably.
But on the phone, I wish I could've
put it on speaker.
(crying): Don't cry.
Please just come home.
She cried like...
like a little girl just hurting for her mommy.
And I said, "Baby, I-- uh, can I come back, please?"
And she said, "Yes, Mama, come back at 6:00."
-Thank you. -You're welcome.
Our daughter met R. Kelly at a concert in Orlando
that, uh, we all went to,
celebrating for my husband's birthday.
He actually pulled her out the crowd onstage.
Azriel was 17.
We had no idea that she was going through
some personal things, I guess, in her life.
You know, um, that, um... (voice breaking)
♪ Oh, say can you see... ♪
ALICE: She's a remarkable singer,
and she had been singing since she was about five or six,
but singing kind of, like, professionally
since she was about eight.
She's been in so many different contests,
shows, won so many awards.
That was her thing.
She wanted to be
a famous singer.
She had a bubbly personality,
very fun, like, full of life young lady.
ANGELO: When R. Kelly picked my daughter
to go up onstage,
they danced, and it was a bunch
of young ladies he picked out.
Everybody knew R. Kelly's background with females.
You know, you kind of suppressed the thought.
He's never been found guilty on any of the charges, so...
I mean, if you look at it, you know, from a legal standpoint,
you think, okay, maybe it wasn't any truth or validity to it.
Because people make accusations on people all the time.
It doesn't mean it's actually true.
I felt as though, you know, yeah, I know his background,
but my daughter gonna be different.
I'm right here with her, her mom's right here with her.
So, I was-- You know, me being a-a father,
a protective father,
I'm-I'm-I'm okay with it 'cause I don't think
none of this could happen to me.
Then the way they had to exit was through the back.
So, during that time, we was waiting and waiting and waiting,
and kind of getting a little nervous.
Went to the corner where the VIP was,
and then that's where she exited at,
from the back side of the stage.
They told us that he asked her to hear her sing.
He liked it, so he gave her a number to contact him.
ALICE: Azriel was in the 11th grade.
We didn't find out right away,
but she was secretly, I guess, calling him and texting him,
and had been talking to him on the phone.
One day, the time that she's supposed to be at home,
I call, and she wasn't home yet.
Finally, we get a phone call.
She finally called me and said, "Oh, I'm at a hotel in Kissimmee
meeting with R. Kelly."
How and why, like, did this happen?
Like, I was really shocked.
ALICE: One day, we get a phone call.
She finally called me and said, "Oh, I'm at a hotel in Kissimmee
meeting with R. Kelly."
And the first thing I thought was,
I have to leave work, like, right now, immediately.
I called my husband, and he was at work, and he said,
"I'm on my way, too." He left work.
That's a grown man,
and I've heard of the allegations
in the past about him.
So it kind of, kind of freaked me out
because I'm thinking she's never done anything without us.
Why would R. Kelly, as a man,
want to meet our daughter by herself?
Why would she even go without one of us, you know?
We told her from the beginning, when she got it,
we don't want you around him never by yourself.
You always got to be with one of us.
As I get to the hotel, I see her car.
And then I see his tour bus, so I know she was at the hotel.
So I was kind of relieved that, no, okay, she is here.
ALICE: But we go inside the hotel,
asking for R. Kelly room.
They were saying there was no such guest there.
And we're like, "Okay, we know there's a guest there
"'cause his tour bus is outside, my daughter car is out there,
"and, you know, we need our daughter to come down.
She's a minor."
So, they got the head of security to come and...
'Cause we were actually going through the building
and knocking on doors.
They told us we couldn't do that.
So, basically, he came back and said,
"Yes, we do have him here.
"Um, we're trying to find out what room, locate your daughter.
"And could you be patient and just let us,
you know, find out what was going on?"
Because, apparently, he had, like,
two floors, or something, of rooms.
ANGELO: And she was with R. Kelly in the room, alone.
She was auditioning, is the word that was used.
She was auditioning for him.
And so we said no, no, no, no.
That-- No. She needs to come down,
or he needs to come down, or whatever.
Well, eventually, Azriel came down.
He never came down.
She went into the whole spiel: hey, we messin' it up.
-"It was a real interview." -She was upset.
"And why would you come down?
"Y'all gonna mess up my shot.
"You know, this-this is my chance.
"This is what we all working for.
You know, this is my career. Y'all supposed to back me."
And I'm like, you know what, maybe it was innocent.
You know, and maybe it was an interview,
but she should've called us.
I believe that R. Kelly thinks that he's invincible.
He was acquitted.
What makes any of us think that he will
ever be touched?
So, I think that he believes that he has a pass for life,
because no one's been able to touch him at all.
ALICE: We're riding home.
Azriel's basically saying how
R. Kelly is, like, a musical genius,
and he could possibly help her move into the next level.
And she went home and researched and...
She went home and researched him and all his music.
Saw all the people he worked with
and all that.
ALICE: All the songwriters, like, all the songs he wrote
for, you know, people he wrote for.
And so she was just, like, amped, she was excited.
She thought this was her brea.
We were like, "You need to get R. Kelly on the phone."
And so then we had a conversation with him
that, first, we were not happy with what just had took place.
And that should not have transpired
without one of her parents being present.
ANGELO: And I asked him, you know,
"Is this how you conduct business?"
He was like, "No." He was leaving.
You know, he thought it was okay.
Azriel had assured that, you know,
it wouldn't be a problem if she came over
and did the interview now,
and we were supposed to meet 'em over there.
ALICE: We told her, like, basically,
for you to do anything else with him,
she cannot be with him by herself.
Honestly, I didn't think it was a good fit.
I didn't want to have any part of it,
but Azriel actually pressed us.
She made her little threats about if we didn't, you know,
let her do this, what she would do.
And now, looking back at it,
he was very manipulative, so...
It was-- it was a plot. It was his--
That's the strategy he did.
MICHELLE: I'm about to go meet my daughter.
She said go at 6:00,
but I'm going to go now because I just need to know.
I'm just anxious, and I just can't wait till no 6:00.
PRODUCER: How you feeling right now?
Nervous all over again,
like five or six hours ago when we first went to the door.
But, um, God didn't lead me here and then take it away.
I came too close.
MICHELLE: Yes, can I have
Dominique Gardner's room, please?
Hello?
-Hey. -Hey.
I came back to the hotel, and they said
you called the police on me.
I knew it wasn't you.
So, what you want to do?
'Cause, I mean, they said the police came and everything.
And they said somebody keep calling.
He could be lying. I don't know.
But she didn't see me.
She hung up.
(bleep)
I don't want to get ugly,
but I ain't leaving this damn hotel.
I done came too damn close.
I'm this far. Are you kidding me?
I went to the bathroom, I waited about ten or 15 minutes.
She came in with a book bag, a wifebeater,
some shorts, and some flip-flops with some socks on
and a backpack, and that's all she had.
And we ran out of there like the master was coming for us.
-It's okay. -DOMINIQUE (crying): Okay.
MICHELLE: Gabe said he loves you so much. Okay.
DRIVER: You can ride in here, but turn the camera off.
MICHELLE: No, I don't-- she don't want that.
No, tell 'em to take-- Keep that camera over there.
DRIVER: All right, get your bag.
MICHELLE: Okay. Okay, baby.
(both crying)
DOMINIQUE: Okay.
MICHELLE: You brave, okay. Look at me.
Look at me. You brave. You so brave.
You're so beautiful.
This is God, you know that, right?
You know that, right? Look at me, look at me.
You know that was God. You was-- You didn't even think
I was coming for you, did you? Did you?
(Dominique crying)
MICHELLE: You're so happy. I'm happy for you.
Look, this the best...
I know. I love you, too.
I know, baby, I know.
But you did good, baby.
The best feeling.
Like having a newborn baby,
and the doctor giving you your baby...
that you carried for nine months.
♪ ♪
There's three drugs out there:
crack, heroin, and R. Kelly.
And she was trying to fight that drug.
♪ ♪
She have seen some stuff.
She done did some stuff.
And I believe that he have said some things to even
maybe try to come harm to her family,
or all the girls' family.
She don't understand how many people love her.
But his sick ass always make them think
that nobody loves you but him.
And, um, I told her
wasn't nothing gonna ever happen to her.
And I meant that.
R. Kelly, I'm gonna call the police and tell them
you kidnapped my sister.
-Azriel! -(door creaks)
This room right here was, like, the most
degrading thing ever.
This is just...
You're not addressing these allegations.
WOMAN: Mute R. Kelly!
And so we decided to protest.
-Black girls'... -PROTESTERS: Black girls'...
WOMAN: ...lives matter!
This interview is over.
JOHN LEGEND: Time's up for R. Kelly.
Time's up for that.
PROTESTERS: Mute R. Kelly!
Mute R. Kelly!