A second male accuser testified that R. Kelly 'brainwashed' him and directed him to have sex with 'zombieish' women

• R. Kelly's second male accuser detailed their yearslong sexual relationship at his trial Monday.
• "Alex" said Kelly often arranged for him to have sex with a woman and Kelly would join or watch.
• He said the women were "zombieish" and that he lied to federal agents because he was "brainwashed."

A second male accuser in R. Kelly's sex crimes trial took the stand Monday to testify about how the singer directed and recorded him in "countless" sexual encounters with women, which Kelly himself often participated in.

The witness, testifying under the pseudonym "Alex," described how he first met Kelly in 2007, as a 16-year-old high school junior, and later entered a sexual relationship with the "Ignition" singer when he was 20 years old. He said Kelly frequently arranged sexual encounters with women for him, sometimes participating in them, and gave him the nickname "Nephew" even though they were not related.

Alex is not considered a victim in the charging documents against Kelly, whose real name is Robert Sylvester Kelly. He testified under subpoena and had never spoken publicly about his experience before, he said.

Prosecutors have accused Kelly of numerous sex crimes, saying he sexually abused numerous people and directed employees to procure women for sex. The trial is in its fourth week in a federal courthouse in Brooklyn. Kelly has denied all the charges against him.

Alex said he first met Kelly through Louis, the pseudonym of the other male accuser in the trial and his best friend at the time. Louis - an aspiring musician - testified earlier in the trial that he first met Kelly through working at a McDonald's drive-thru and sought career guidance from him. Alex's first introduction to Kelly was in January of 2007, at a party at Kelly's mansion in Olympia Fields, a Chicago suburb.

At a party that spring, celebrating the release of Kelly's 2007 album "Double Up," Kelly slipped Alex his phone number scrawled on a piece of paper, Alex testified.

They began a text message-based correspondence, he said, and Alex was sometimes invited to be a member of Kelly's ongoing basketball crew. Alex suggested Kelly wasn't a very good teammate, describing the games as "Kelly Ball."

"We get the rebounds, pass it to him to shoot," he said.

Kelly instructed Alex to have sex with 'zombieish' women, he testified

Kelly first began pursuing Alex sexually several years later, when he was 20 years old, he testified. He said Kelly invited him to one of his residences and asked him to wait in a car outside. After 20 minutes, he said, Kelly showed up and, after chatting for a bit, pushed himself on him.

"I recall him talking to me, and then forcefully kissing me and licking my face," Alex testified.

Kelly told Alex to "just be open-minded," he testified.

Most of the sexual encounters with Kelly, Alex said, was with another woman present.

The first occasion was in Kelly's Olympia Fields home, in a bedroom Alex believed belonged to one of Kelly's children. Kelly brought a woman - whose name Alex didn't know - and instructed the two to have sex. Kelly set up an iPad to record the encounter and had "production lights" to help capture the scene.

Alex said Kelly arranged numerous similar encounters, which would happen in the Olympia Fields home, in Kelly's Chicago recording studios, and on tour buses. Sometimes Kelly would actively participate in the sex, and sometimes he would watch, instruct, and masturbate, Alex testified.

On every occasion, Kelly would make recordings of the experiences, Alex said. Kelly told Alex to call him "Daddy," just as the female accusers in the trial testified he told them to do.

Alex described the women as "zombieish" and said he wasn't supposed to speak to them outside of the sexual encounter and did not even know their names. The female accusers who've testified in Kelly's trial said they were told not to speak to - or even look at - other men.

Kelly told Alex to lie about his relationship and tell people, if asked, that he was Kelly's stylist.

In cross-examination, Kelly's lawyer Devereaux Cannick asked Alex why he told federal agents in an earlier interview that he was employed by Kelly - repeating to them the lie.

Alex responded by saying he was "brainwashed for so long" before Cannick interrupted him and moved to a different topic.

Alex said he last saw Kelly in 2019, after "Surviving R. Kelly" - a docuseries where numerous women detailed abuse claims against the singer - aired on the Lifetime network.

Kelly had summoned him to his home in Trump Tower. He told Alex to write a false letter, denying he was ever in a homosexual relationship.

Alex complied. He wrote the false letter exactly as Kelly dictated, he said.

"He told me word-for-word," he testified.