R. Kelly Charged With 11 New Counts of Sexual Abuse, Assault

Chicago prosecutors charged R. Kelly with 11 more counts of sexual abuse on Thursday.According to [...]

By Daniel S. Levine

Chicago prosecutors charged R. Kelly with 11 more counts of sexual abuse on Thursday.

According to CBS Chicago, four of the charges are Class X felonies, and the alleged victims are between 13 and 16 years old. The charges include aggravated criminal sex abuse, criminal sex assault and aggravated criminal sex assault.

The indictment accuses Kelly of engaging in sex acts with a minor, only identified as "JP," by "the use of force or threat of force and … acted in such a manner as to threaten or endanger the life of JP."

Kelly is set to be in court on the new allegations on Thursday, June 6.

The new charges follow the charges filed against the "Trapped in the Closet" singer in February, when Cook County prosecutors charged him with 10 counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse. Kelly pleaded not guilty to the charges.

The February charges filed against Kelly took place over a 12-year period and involved four victims, including three underage. Prosecutors said they had video showing Kelly engaged in multiple sex acts, allegedly with a 14-year-old girl.

Kelly denied all the allegations, including claims he ran a "sex cult," in an emotional CBS This Morning interview with Gayle King in March. He also denied the allegations in Lifetime's explosive Surviving R. Kelly documentary series.

"Everybody says something bad about me. Nobody said nothing good," Kelly told King. "They was describing Lucifer. I'm not Lucifer."

He later claimed, "Just a lot of rumors that suggest that I'm handcuffing people, starving people. I have a harem – whatcha call it, a cult. I don't even know what a cult is. But I know I don't have one."

At one point, Kelly got up from his char and yelled at King, telling her, "Stop it. You all quit playing! Quit playing! I didn't do this stuff! This is not me! I'm fighting for my f—ing life! Y'all killing me with this s—! I gave you 30 years of my f—ing career."

He continued, "Thirty years of my career! And y'all trying to kill me? You killing me, man! This is not about music! I'm trying to have a relationship with my kids! And I can't do it! Y'all just don't want to believe the truth! You don't want to believe it!"

Kelly has faced other legal dramas outside the mounting sexual assault charges. At one point, he was briefly jailed for failing to pay child support. He also unsuccessfully tried to have his child support payments lowered because his income from his music was drying up.

"If you can't play a show, if you can't go out on tour, if they're not streaming your music anymore, obviously you're going to have financial problems," Kelly's lawyer, Steve Greenberg, said at the time. "You don't need to be a rocket scientist to figure that out."

In April, authorities seized $150,000 from his bank account, leaving his balance at negative $13.

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