Singer R. Kelly is expected to make a court appearance in Illinois on Saturday after being charged with ten counts of aggravated sexual abuse.
Kelly, the subject of decades of lurid rumours and allegations involving women and underage girls, was indicted by a grand jury in relation to alleged offences involving four victims, at least three of whom were younger than 17.
The charges filed Friday in Cook County Circuit Court in Chicago involve incidents that took place between 1998 and 2010.
If he is convicted on all ten counts, a judge could decide that the sentences run one after the other — making it possible that he receives a sentence of up to 70 years behind bars.
Probation is also an option under the statute.
Over the years, the 52-year-old Grammy winner has consistently denied any sexual misconduct.
Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx announces the charges of aggravated sexual abuse at a news conference Friday. (Kiichiro Sato/Associated Press)
A bond hearing for Kelly, whose legal name is Robert Kelly, will be held Saturday.
The R&B singer is one of the top-selling recording artists of all time, with hits such as I Believe I Can Fly, and his arrest sets the stage for another #MeToo-era celebrity trial. Bill Cosby went to prison last year, and former Hollywood studio boss Harvey Weinstein is awaiting trial.
Kelly was charged a day after Michael Avenatti, the attorney whose clients have included porn star Stormy Daniels, said he recently gave Chicago prosecutors new video evidence of the singer having sex with an underage girl. It was not immediately clear if the charges were connected to that video.
In 2008, a jury acquitted Kelly of child pornography charges over a graphic video that prosecutors said showed him having sex with a girl as young as 13. He and the young woman allegedly depicted with him denied they were in the 27-minute video, even though the picture quality was good and witnesses testified it was them, and she did not take the stand. Kelly could have received 15 years in prison.
R. Kelly is shown during his 2008 trial, for which he was ultimately acquitted. (M. Spencer Green/Associated Press)
Legally and professionally, the walls began closing in on Kelly more recently after the release of a BBC documentary about him last year and, last month, the Lifetime documentary series Surviving R. Kelly. Together they detailed allegations he was holding women against their will and running a “sex cult.”
Singer denies abusing women
After Surviving R. Kelly’s release, Chicago’s top prosecutor, Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx, said she was “sickened” by the allegations and asked potential victims to come forward.
MeToo activists and a social media movement using the hashtag #MuteRKelly called on streaming services to drop Kelly’s music and promoters not to book any more concerts. And protesters demonstrated outside Kelly’s Chicago studio.
Kelly’s attorney, Steve Greenberg, said earlier this year that his client was the victim of a TV hit piece and that Kelly “never knowingly had sex with an underage woman, he never forced anyone to do anything, he never held anyone captive, he never abused anyone.”
Avenatti said his office was retained last April by people regarding allegations of sexual assault of minors by Kelly. He said the video surfaced during a 10-month investigation. He told The Associated Press that the person who provided the VHS tape knew both Kelly and the female in the video.
Despite accusations that span decades, the singer and songwriter who rose from poverty on Chicago’s South Side has retained a sizable following. He has written numerous hits for himself and other artists, including Celine Dion, Michael Jackson and Lady Gaga. His collaborators have included Jay-Z and Usher.
Kelly broke into the R&B scene in 1993 with his first solo album, 12 Play, which produced such popular sex-themed songs as Bump N’ Grind and Your Body’s Callin’.
Months after those successes, the then-27-year-old Kelly faced allegations he married 15-year-old Aaliyah, the R&B star who later died in a plane crash in the Bahamas. Kelly was the lead songwriter and producer of Aaliyah’s 1994 debut album.
Kelly and Aaliyah never confirmed the marriage, though Vibe magazine published a copy of the purported marriage licence. Court documents later obtained by the Chicago Sun-Times showed Aaliyah admitted lying about her age on the licence.
Jim DeRogatis, a longtime music critic for the Chicago Sun-Times, played a key role in drawing the attention of law enforcement to Kelly. In 2002, he received the sex tape in the mail that was central to Kelly’s 2008 trial. He turned it over to prosecutors. In 2017, DeRogatis wrote a story for BuzzFeed about the allegations Kelly was holding women against their will in Georgia.
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