R Kelly in court for sexual assault

A woman who said she met R&B singer R Kelly at a party last year has filed a lawsuit against him, accusing him of sexual battery, false imprisonment and transmitting a sexual disease, the latest in a string of accusations against the Grammy Award-winning pop star.

In the civil lawsuit filed in New York state court on Monday, Faith Rodgers said she first met Kelly at a party following his performance in San Antonio, Texas, in March, when she was 19.

Kelly has denied multiple accusations of sexual misconduct over the past year.

The 51-year-old’s manager John Holder on Tuesday said in an e-mail that Kelly had no comment “at this time” on Rodgers’ lawsuit.

RCA record company publicist Theola Borden did not respond to a request for comment.

Rodgers, who is now 20, says in the lawsuit that the singer famous for I Believe I Can Fly made arrangements for her to visit him in New York in May last year and “initiated unwanted sexual contact” with her there.

“During the course of their, approximately oneyear relationship, defendant R. Kelly routinely engaged in intimidation, mental, verbal and sexual abuse, during and after sexual contact,” the lawsuit said, adding that Kelly’s conduct “was designed to humiliate, embarrass, intimidate and shame the plaintiff ”.

Rodgers said in a TV interview with CBS’s This Morning on Tuesday that Kelly “has this type of, like, intimidation right off the bat. So I was just waiting for it to be over.” – Reuters