R. Kelly’s attorney backs off travel request
Singer scheduled for performances in April in Dubai
Embattled R&B star R. Kelly’s attorney asked a Cook County judge Friday to hold off on his request to fly by private jet to Dubai next month to perform at several concerts.
Kelly’s attorney, Steven Greenberg, offered no explanation in court for the delay other than to say he wanted to provide additional materials to Judge Lawrence Flood.
The judge set the next court hearing for Kelly for May 7, well after the singer wanted to travel to the United Arab Emirates to perform in three to five concerts in April.
Kelly, 52, was indicted last month on 10 counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse involving three underage girls and awoman over a dozen years.
As a condition of his release on $1 million bond, he cannot leave Illinois without permission.
Prosecutors have yet to weigh in publicly on the request to travel overseas.
After the brief hearing, Greenberg remained vague with reporters on what in- formation he suddenly wanted the judge to consider before deciding whether to allow the trip to theUAE.
Greenberg suggested he could schedule another court date soon to enable the singer, whose full name is Robert Kelly, to still perform in Dubai next month.
“I think the judge would be in a better position to rule in our favor if we had a little more detail in the motion,” he said. “There’s still a chance he could go to Dubai, sure.”
In a court filing earlier this week, Greenberg said Kelly has been struggling financially as his reputation has come under increasing attack and he has been unable to find work in the U.S. Some streaming services have removed his songs, and his record company has canceled his contract, the attorney said.
Kelly needs to perform overseas to pay off his mounting expenses, including child support, unpaid rent and legal fees, according to the filing.
But attorney Doug Anton, who said he represents Kelly on entertainment matters, told reporters after the hearing at the Leighton Criminal Court Building that the singer has fielded dozens of offers to perform in recentweeks.
Anton held a thick file folder and said it contained about 150 emails received by Kelly in the past six weeks — “offers to perform in just every place possible you can think of,” he said.
In addition, Kelly has several new recordings “in the can ready to go,” Anton said. “Professionally, it’s looking up.”
Anton said he still was confident that arrangements could be worked out so Kelly could travel out of state.
“We’re going to make sure we do everything the judge and the state need for us to do to comply with those formalities and then we’ll have Robert back working,” he said.
Greenberg later told reporters that since he filed for permission to travel just two days earlier, Kelly had received many additional requests to perform.
“So since that’s been filed … people know he’s available to do shows,” he said. “They want him to do shows. His fans love him.”
Meanwhile, prosecutors said in court Friday that they donot intend tomake a copy of a videotape at the center of one of the indictments. The footage purports to showKelly sexually abusing a 14-year-old girl — believed to be the same girl at the center ofKelly’s 2008 child pornography trial. He was acquitted of those charges.
The state will make arrangements for Kelly’s lawyers to view the tape, Assistant State’s Attorney Jennifer Gonzalez said, but making a copy would be equivalent to distributing child pornography.
Greenberg objected, say- ing his team needed its own copy of the video to prepare a defense. He proposed that a protective order be put in place.
Flood said hewould consider the issue later.
The criminal charges are only the latest in Kelly’s mounting legal, financial and public relations battles.
A secretive dispute over unpaid child support put him in jail for three days earlier this month until an anonymous donor came up with more than $161,000.
One of the alleged sexual abuse victims recently filed a lawsuit in Cook County alleging that Kelly began a sexual relationship with her when shewas 16.
And city building inspectors earlier this year found multiple code violations at his Chicago studio— aWest Loop building he has since vacated. Court records show he owes the studio’s landlord more than $173,000 in back rent and other fees.
In addition, a growing social media backlash was heightened when a Lifetime documentary series, “Surviving R. Kelly,” aired in January with accusations of sexually predatory and abusive behavior against him by multiplewomen.