Black Immigrant Daily News

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Black Immigrant Daily News

Algernon “Serpent” Watts, the United Progressive Party (UPP) Candidate for St. George, is defending himself against attacks and refuting lies reportedly uttered by MP Dean Jonas, the Antigua Labour Party (ALP) incumbent.

During an event staged by the National Youth Parliament last Thursday night, August 18, Jonas criticized Watts’ qualifications, sneering that he has put himself forward for public office when he does not have a tertiary degree.

However, Watts says that Jonas has no advantage on him, since he can stand against him in his profession, while the government minister cannot do the same against him in his field.

Meanwhile, Watts is commending the Youth Parliament for organizing the event, but says he did not realize he was to take part in a debate until he got to the venue.

Despite this, the UPP Candidate says he did not shy away from taking part in the debate – given that he had been the first person to call for such an event a few election cycles ago.

He adds, however, that Jonas is alleged to have been the force behind Thursday night’s event.

Kelton Dalso, the Democratic National Alliance Candidate (DNA), who was the third debater, also has accused Jonas of making untruthful remarks.

Jonas credited the ALP Administration with helping Dalso – via a scholarship – to acquire a law degree, a claim the DNA candidate strongly denies, saying funding for his studies came through his family and personal means.

Dalso also decried Jonas’ attack on Watts.

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Police have launched an investigation into a fatal shooting Sunday night in Monchy, Gros Islet.

Officers reported that they received a shooting report around 10.00 pm and found that an individual, identified as Kevin Mc Phee had sustained multiple gunshot wounds.

Saint Lucia has so far recorded 43 homicides.

There are no further details at present.

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Black Immigrant Daily News

CHICAGO (AP) — R. Kelly’s legal team will get its chance to question the government’s star witness on Friday after she testified at his federal trial in Chicago that the R&B singer sexually abused her hundreds of times before she turned 18.

Jane, the pseudonym used for her during the trial, has been central to Kelly’s legal troubles for more than two decades. She testified for over four hours for the government Thursday, also telling jurors it was her and Kelly in a videotape that was at the heart of his 2008 child pornography trial, at which he was acquitted.

Jane, now 37, paused, tugged at a necklace and dabbed her eyes with a tissue as she said publicly for the first time that the girl in the video was her and that the man was Kelly.

When a prosecutor asked Jane how old she was at the time the video was shot, she said quietly: “14.” Kelly, 55, would have been around 30 years old at the time.

Kelly has denied any wrongdoing. He faces charges of child pornography and enticement of minors as well as conspiring to rig that 2008 trial by intimidating and paying off the girl to ensure she didn’t testify then.

Some jurors for the 2008 trial, which was on state charges, said that they had no choice but to acquit the R&B star because the girl — by then an adult — didn’t testify. On the stand Thursday, Jane conceded that she lied to a state grand jury in 2002 when she said that it was not her in the video.

“I was afraid something bad would happen to Robert,” she told jurors about why she didn’t tell the truth then, referring to Kelly by his full first name. “I was protecting him.”

She added there was another reason she lied about the identity of the person in the video. “I also did not want that person to be me,” she told jurors. “I was ashamed.”

Kelly’s attorney was scheduled to get her chance to cross-examine Jane starting Friday morning.

A prosecutor asked Jane toward the end of the day Thursday why she decided in recent years to begin speaking honestly about what happened with Kelly, who Jane said she continued to care for and sometimes live with into her 20s.

“I became exhausted living with his lies,” she answered. She added that federal prosecutors assured her she would not be charged with lying to authorities if she testified truthfully at this trial.

Earlier, Jane also became emotional when she was asked to explain why Kelly can be seen handing money to her in the video. She said it was a precaution against anyone accusing him of abusing a child if the video ever fell into the hands of authorities.

“If anyone saw the tape … he wanted it to appear as if I was a prostitute,” Jane said.

She described her parents confronting Kelly in the early 2000s about whether he was having sex with their daughter. Kelly dropped to his knees and begged her parents to forgive him, Jane testified. She said she later implored her parents not to do anything to get Kelly in trouble, telling them she loved him.

As Jane spoke, Kelly mostly stared down at the defense table and rarely looked up at her. She, too, rarely looked in his direction.

Earlier, she testified that Kelly sexually abused her “hundreds” of times before she turned 18 years old, starting when she was 15. She said they were having oral sex in the video and that she was 14 at the time.

Jane told jurors that in the late 1990s when she was 13, she asked the Grammy award-winning singer to be her godfather because she saw him as an inspiration and mentor.

She said within weeks, Kelly would call her and say sexual things. She told jurors she was 15 when they first had intercourse.

Asked by a prosecutor how she would know what to do sexually, Jane answered, “He would tell me what to do.” Asked how many times they had sex before she turned 18, she answered quietly: “Uncountable times. … Hundreds.”

A federal judge in New York sentenced Kelly to a 30-year prison sentence this year for his 2021 conviction for using his fame to sexually abuse fans.

Speaking softly and tentatively when she first took the stand Thursday, Jane described her upbringing in a musical family in a Chicago suburb, including that she was home-schooled because she was in a touring musical group that she joined when she was about 12.

Jane first met Kelly in the late 1990s when she was in junior high school. She had tagged along to Kelly’s Chicago recording studio with her aunt, a professional singer who worked with Kelly. Soon after that meeting, Jane told her parents that Kelly was going to be her godfather.

Kelly, who rose from poverty on Chicago’s South Side to become a star singer, songwriter and producer, knew a conviction in 2008 would effectively end his life as he knew it, and so prosecutors say he conspired to fix that trial.

Kelly has been trailed for decades by complaints and allegations about his sexual behavior. The scrutiny intensified after the #MeToo era and the 2019 six-part documentary “Surviving R. Kelly.”

Kelly also faces four counts of enticement of minors for sex at the Chicago trial — one each for four other accusers. They, too, are expected to testify.

By MICHAEL TARM

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Black Immigrant Daily News

West Indies posted 301 for eight but it wasn’t enough as New Zealand overhauled the total to win the third One-Day International (ODI) on Sunday night by five wickets and clinch the series 2-1.

Four batsmen posted half centuries as New Zealand replied with 307 for five to win the match by 17 runs at Kensington Oval in Barbados.

Tom Latham scored 69 and put on 120 for the fourth wicket with Daryl Mitchell (63) in a stand which paced the run chase and carried New Zealand in sight of victory.

New Zealand’s captain Tom Latham plays a shot. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa).

Martin Guptill (57) and Devon Conway (56) had earlier combined to add 82 runs for the second wicket to give New Zealand a platform for a demanding chase.

Mitchell was out with the total 248 in the 42nd over and Latham at 259 in the 44th, still with New Zealand requiring 43 runs. Jimmy Neesham settled the issue with a decisive innings of 34 from 11 deliveries, taking 18 runs from the 45th over bowled by Yannic Cariah.

Neesham hit a six from the bowling of West Indies captain Nicholas Pooran to end the chase in the 47th over.

“It was obviously nice to make a contribution,” Latham said. “I think the partnership that Daryl and I were able to make put them under pressure. We set a target of getting to that 40-over mark where we needed a run a ball.”

Latham appeared to have erred when he chose to bowl first and as the West Indies flourished in good batting conditions.

West Indies’ openers Shai Hope and Kyle Mayers. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa).

Kyle Mayers made 105 in a 173-run opening partnership with Shai Hope, and Pooran smashed nine sixes in a rapid 91 for the West Indies.

The pitch proved much better for batting than those on which the West Indies won the first match by five wickets and New Zealand won the second by 50 runs. The highest previous total in the series was New Zealand’s 212 in the second match.

Mayers and Hope stayed together for almost 35 overs to shape the West Indies innings.

Their partnership ended when Hope was out for 51 and, as often happens with large partnerships, partner Mayers was out two balls later and without addition to the total. Brandon King fell soon afterwards with the total 181 for three in a sudden reversal for the West Indies.

But Pooran picked up the pace again, posting a half-century from 33 balls. He had hit nine sixes and and four fours from 55 balls when he was out in the 49th over.

Mayers and Hope made a cautious start to the innings as they found the pace of the new pitch, crawling to 24 after 10 overs, negotiating a short rain break in the seventh over.

“I took my time in the powerplay and it gave me the chance to get in. The last two games I got out in the powerplay,” Mayers said in a television interview. “It’s not every day you bat the powerplay for 20 runs but it worked out well in the end.”

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