Prosecutors on Saturday painted a dark portrait of a manipulative and sometimes violent R Kelly, describing how the US singer-songwriter repeatedly sought out underage girls for sex, including one girl he encountered at her 16th birthday party and another who met the rhythm and blues star while he was on trial for child pornography.
The accounts emerged as Kelly made his first court appearance since being accused of sexually abusing four people in a case that could produce another #MeToo reckoning for a celebrity.
A judge gave Kelly a chance to go free while awaiting trial, setting bond at US$1 million. That means the 52-year-old Grammy winner had to post US$100,000 to be released or remain behind bars until he is tried on the allegations, which date back as far as 1998 and span more than a decade.
Photo: AP
The prosecution released four documents, one for each accuser, outlining the basis for the charges.
A 16-year-old girl reported meeting Kelly in 1998 at a restaurant where she was having a birthday party, the files said. Kelly’s manager gave her the singer’s business card and suggested that she call Kelly, they said.
The girl’s mother heard the exchange, took the card and told the manager that her daughter was 16, but her daughter later retrieved the card from her purse, they said.
She contacted R Kelly, who gave her instructions and money that she assumed was for the taxi fare to his studio, where they had sex periodically for a year, the documents said.
Another accuser, also 16, met Kelly at his 2008 trial, where he gave her an autograph. He later invited her to his home in the Chicago suburb of Olympia Fields, where they had sex multiple times, according to the documents, which said that he also slapped, choked and spit on her.
In early 2003, a Chicago hairdresser told prosecutors that she thought she was going to braid Kelly’s hair, but he pulled down his pants and tried to force her to give him oral sex, the documents said.
The woman, who was 24, was able to pull away, but Kelly ejaculated on her and spit in her face, they said.
Prosecutors also described a witness who had access to videotapes showing Kelly having sex with a 14-year-old girl. The witness turned the tape over to authorities and identified the girl, who repeatedly states her age on the footage, the documents said.
Kelly’s DNA was found in semen on one of the accuser’s shirts and semen found on a shirt worn by another was submitted for DNA testing, said Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx, the district attorney for the Illinois subdivision that includes Chicago.
It was not clear whether the accusers turned their shirts over to authorities shortly after the alleged abuse or more recently.
At the bond hearing, R Kelly’s attorney, Steve Greenberg, said that his client is not a flight risk.
“Contrary to the song, Mr Kelly doesn’t like to fly,” Greenberg told the judge.
Kelly “really doesn’t have any more money,” he added, suggesting that others had mismanaged his wealth.
Still, he said he expected that Kelly would be able to come up with enough money for bail.
The judge called the allegations “disturbing.”
R Kelly looked down at the floor as the judge spoke.
After the hearing, Greenberg told reporters that Kelly did not force anyone to have sex: “He’s a rock star. He doesn’t have to have nonconsensual sex.”
The judge ordered Kelly to surrender his passport, ending his hopes of doing a tour of Europe in April.
Kelly was acquitted of child pornography charges in 2008 and has consistently denied any sexual misconduct.
He has been charged with 10 counts of aggravated sexual abuse. Each count of the new charges carries up to seven years in prison and the sentences could be served consecutively, making it possible for Kelly to receive up to 70 years.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese