R. Kelly: Date Set for Singer to Face Additional Charges in New York

R. Kelly was recently arrested in Chicago on multiple federal criminal charges and is currently being held without bond. According to the Chicago Tribune, Kelly will face charges in New York on Aug. 2 when is he is brought by U.S. Marshals to the federal courthouse in Brooklyn.

After his hearing in New York, Kelly will be returned to Chicago for a status hearing on Sept. 4 on a separate indictment, court records state.

The musician is currently facing two separate federal cases stemming from his years of alleged sexual misconduct with underage girls. The Illinois case alleges that Kelly made multiple videos of himself having sex with underage girls and made efforts to recover tapes before they fell into prosecutor’s hands. He recently pleaded not guilty to thirteen counts related to the making and procuring of child pornography.

The case against Kelly in New York contains five counts of allegations and claims that Kelly moved underage girls across state lines. He is being charged in New York’s Eastern District with sexual exploitation of a child, forced labor, kidnapping and transporting women and girls to engage in illegal sexual acts.

Kelly was arrested by federal agents on Thursday and a judge ordered that he be denied bond, with prosecutors arguing that Kelly’s alleged history of sexual abuse, manipulation and obstruction of justice also make him an “extreme danger” to the community. He was also deemed a flight risk.

In addition to his federal charges, the singer is facing four separate indictments brought earlier this year in Illinois alleging he sexually assaulted one woman and sexually abused three others. He pleaded not guilty and was free on a $1 million bond until his recent arrest.

Claims of sexual misconduct have followed Kelly for years, and he previously stood trial in 2008 on child pornography charges, for which he was acquitted. A 2019 Lifetime documentary, Surviving R. Kelly, explored the abuse claims in detail and alleged that Kelly has a history of enticing women, many of whom are underage, into his life before cutting them off from their families and grooming them to endure years of sexual abuse.

The indictment against Kelly states that rules the girls had to follow including not leaving their rooms unless instructed by Kelly, “including to eat or go to the bathroom.”

“We’re talking seventh and eighth-grade girls,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Angel Krull said at Kelly’s Chicago hearing Tuesday. “And it didn’t happen once or twice. He sexually abused them hundreds of times before they turned 18.”

Photo Credit: Getty / Scott Olson