R. Kelly surrenders to cops
Singer charged with 10 counts of sex abuse against minors
CHICAGO: R&B superstar R. Kelly turned himself in to Chicago police after prosecutors charged him with 10 counts of aggravated criminal sex abuse against four victims, three of them minors.
The bombshell development in the Kelly saga came after a judge approved a no-bail arrest warrant for the 52-year-old, who for decades has faced accusations of child pornography, sex with minors, operating a sex cult and sexual battery.
Kelly surrendered to Chicago police at approximately 8.15pm and was taken into custody in handcuffs.
He will appear in court tomorrow afternoon, a police spokesman said.
Kim Foxx – the state’s attorney for Cook County, which includes Chicago – told journalists the alleged crimes occurred between 1998 and 2010. A court clerk had earlier said that nine of the charges involve minors ages 13 to 16.
The felony charges carry three to seven years of prison time per count, Foxx said.
After Kelly was booked, his lawyer Steve Greenberg dismissed the charges, saying they were based on old and false accusations.
Greenberg vowed the musician would be “vindicated,” saying: “I think all of the women are lying.”
“Everybody’s trying to profit off of R. Kelly.”
An arraignment was scheduled for March 8 in Chicago, where he resides, a Cook County clerk said earlier.
It is the second time Chicago prosecutors have charged Kelly with a sex crime: after a dramatic trial that also involved a sex tape, the musician was acquitted of 21 counts of child pornography in 2008.
Greenberg said one of the charges involved the same victim as in that trial.
Kelly, known for hits like I Believe I Can Fly, has faced renewed public scrutiny after a scathing docu-series shed new light on his checkered past.
“Today marks a watershed moment in the 25 years of abuse by this predator,” said high-profile lawyer Michael Avenatti, who is representing two victims, two parents and two whistle-blowers linked to Kelly.
Avenatti and prominent women’s rights attorney Gloria Allred are representing clients linked to Kelly, with the former saying his office had uncovered previously unreleased footage of Kelly having sex with a teenager, which he had given to the Cook County State’s Attorney.
Avenatti – who also represents a porn star locked in a legal battle with President Donald Trump – told journalists on Friday the approximately 40-minute tape shot in the late 1990s “leaves no question” of Kelly’s guilt, and that both the victim and the musician refer multiple times to her age as 14.
He described in graphic detail a number of sex acts shown on the tape, saying the girl refers repeatedly to Kelly as “daddy”.
Avenatti said his team had recovered an additional such tape and is in the process of obtaining a third.
The attorney vowed to go after Kelly’s “enablers,” who he said “turned a blind eye while teenage girls were sexually assaulted for over two decades.”
“They did not want to kill the golden goose,” the lawyer said.
Kelly infamously is known for marrying his protegee Aaliyah in 1994, when the late R&B star was 15.
Kelly, then 27, had produced the teenage singer’s debut album titled Age Ain’t Nothing But a Number.
Their marriage was later annulled, and Aaliyah died in a plane crash in 2001.
Despite the slew of unsettling claims, the decorated musician for years has continued to perform and maintain a solid fan base.