R. Kelly facing 10 sex-abuse charges
R&B star R. Kelly was charged with 10 counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse Friday in Chicago. Each count carries 3-7 years in prison.
Some of the charges stem from a newly discovered video found by attorney Michael Avenatti that allegedly shows Kelly having sex with a 14-yearold girl, according to a copy of the indictment obtained by USA TODAY.
A no-bail arrest warrant for Kelly has been issued by a Chicago judge, The Associated Press reported. No-bail arrest warrants don’t necessarily mean the defendant won’t be offered bail.
Kelly was to appear in court Saturday for a bond hearing, said Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx in announcing the charges in Chicago.
She said the indictment lists four victims, identified by initials, and multiple alleged criminal acts of sexual assault dating back to 1998. Court documents show three of the victims were between the ages of 13 and 17. At the time of the alleged crimes, she said, Kelly was at least five years older than the victims.
Avenatti, who remained quiet throughout his 10-month “investigation” of Kelly on behalf of multiple clients, responded to the indictment on Twitter, proclaiming, “After 25 years of serial sexual abuse and assault of underage girls, the day of reckoning for R Kelly has arrived.”
Steve Greenberg, Kelly’s Chicago defense lawyer, did not respond to a message from USA TODAY. He has said repeatedly in recent weeks that Kelly denies any allegations of underage sex or nonconsensual sex.
Gerald Griggs, an Atlanta lawyer who represents the parents of a woman they believe is being held against her will as a member of Kelly’s alleged “sex cult,” predicted more charges would be forthcoming soon from “multiple jurisdictions” around the country.
Kelly is also under investigation in Fulton County, Georgia, and by the U.S. attorney’s office in the Eastern District of New York, he said.
“Hopefully, with the swift arrest of Kelly, our clients will be able to make unfettered contact with (their daughter) and get her home and the counseling and the help she needs,” Griggs told USA TODAY.
Attorney Gloria Allred, who says she represents multiple women who have accused Kelly of sexual misconduct, introduced two new accusers at a New York news conference Thursday. The women said they were teens when Kelly plied them with alcohol and marijuana during a mid-’90s Baltimore hotel room encounter that they say ended with the statutory rape of one of them.
“As I predicted yesterday, the wheels of justice are turning,” Allred said in a statement emailed to USA TODAY on Friday. “This may not be the only prosecution of Mr. Kelly, because we are aware of other open investigations in other jurisdictions, but I am very glad that he has been indicated in Cook County and that this day has finally come for Mr. Kelly.”
The indictment of Kelly, 52, culminates nearly two decades of allegations, an acquittal at trial, a surging #MuteRKelly campaign, a breakup with his recording label, and the airing of a Kelly-damning film series, “Surviving R. Kelly,” in January.