R Kelly arrested on federal sex trafficking charges

R&B singer expected to be taken from Chicago to New York to face charges relating to child abuse images and obstruction of justice

R Kelly is facing two sets of federal sex abuse charges, one from New York prosecutors and another from prosecutors in his home town of Chicago, after he was arrested on Thursday night while out walking his dog.

The 18-page New York indictment charges Kelly with racketeering and sex-related crimes against women and girls, in an 18-page federal indictment that accuses the singer and members of his entourage of recruiting women and girls to “engage in illegal sexual activity”.

Besides racketeering, the indictment includes charges of transporting for prostitution and coercion or enticement of a female and alleges that Kelly had rules for the women, including not allowing them to eat or use the bathroom and not permitting them to look at other men and telling them to keep their heads down.

The 13-count Chicago indictment filed on Friday details efforts by the accused to cover up sexually explicit videos of Kelly with underage girls. Prosecutors say the defendants paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to victims and witnesses to make sure they would not cooperate with law enforcement.

It also accuses Kelly of using physical abuse, violence and blackmail to prevent victims from providing evidence to police.

Joseph Fitzpatrick, a US attorney spokesman, said the indictment also contained charges that revolve around child abuse images and obstruction of justice.

“The counts include child porn, enticement of a minor and obstruction of justice,” Fitzpatrick said. He said further details would be released later on Friday.

Kelly’s attorney, Steve Greenberg, confirmed his arrest. He said the charges are not a surprise and that Kelly hopes to be released at a bail hearing next week. The singer has denied wrongdoing.

Also on Friday, attempts by Kelly’s publicist to make a statement on his behalf collapsed into chaos in Atlanta when the family of Joycelyn Savage, a woman who reportedly lived with Kelly in Chicago, demanded information about her whereabouts.

Kelly’s publicist, Darrell Johnson, insisted he had “nothing to do” with Savage and that she was not being held.

The federal sex trafficking charges filed by prosecutors in New York appear to stem from allegations made by Faith Rodgers, one of Kelly’s main accusers, who has claimed Kelly manipulated her in a year-long relationship in which he locked her up in rooms and vehicles as “punishment” for “failing to please” him, according to the New York Daily News.

Rodgers previously sued Kelly in Manhattan in 2018, claiming he forced her to have “non-permissive, painful and abusive sex” in a New York hotel in 2017, and knowingly infected her with herpes.

“I trusted him and he betrayed my trust,” Rodgers told reporters at a news conference in January. “Once I recognized my worth, I knew I had to walk away.”

New York police department (NYPD) investigators met in January with Rodgers. Her lawyer, Gloria Allred, said at the time that her client was “doing her duty to provide information”.

The Grammy winner, whose real name is Robert Kelly, was arrested in February on 10 counts in Illinois involving four women, three of whom were minors when the alleged abuse occurred. He pleaded not guilty to those charges and was released on bail.

Then on 30 May, Cook county prosecutors added 11 more sex-related counts to the charges involving one of the women who accused him of sexually abusing her when she was underage.

The new charges, including one of aggravated sexual assault, carry a potential prison sentence of up to 30 years.

The charges came just weeks after the celebrity Los Angeles attorney Michael Avenatti disclosed he had a VHS tape he said showed Kelly having sex with a minor girl.

According to the Chicago Sun-Times, that tape appears to be the basis for the charges against Kelly involving a girl, identified in court papers only as TJ, who allegedly had sex with the singer sometime between 1998 and 2001, when the girl would have been 14 to 16 years old.

Kelly has faced mounting legal troubles this year after Lifetime aired a documentary Surviving R Kelly, which revisited allegations of sexual abuse of girls.

The series followed the BBC’s 2018 R Kelly: Sex, Girls & Videotapes, which alleged the singer was holding women against their will and running a “sex cult”.

Soon after the Lifetime documentary aired, Cook county state’s attorney Kim Foxx said her office had been inundated with calls about the allegations in the documentary. Her office’s investigation led to the charges in February and additional counts in May.

Contributors

Naaman Zhou, Edward Helmore and agencies

The GuardianTramp

Related Content

Article image
R Kelly found guilty on racketeering and sex trafficking charges
Jury finds singer guilty of running a criminal enterprise that recruited women and children and subjected them to sexual exploitation and coercion

Lauren Aratani and Gloria Oladipo in New York

28, Sep, 2021 @2:02 AM

Article image
Singer R Kelly acquitted on child pornography charges

The verdict came six years after the R&B superstar was first charged with videotaping himself having sex with a young girl

Associated Press

13, Jun, 2008 @7:24 PM

Article image
Singer R Kelly cleared of child porn charges after six-year battle

R&B star walks free from court in Chicago after jury clears him of appearing in a sex tape with an underage girl

Andrew Clark in New York

13, Jun, 2008 @11:01 PM

R Kelly acquitted of child pornography charges

News: The R&B singer is cleared of all 14 counts relating to child pornography

Rosie Swash and agencies

16, Jun, 2008 @9:46 AM

R Kelly in court on child sex video charge

After six years of delays and millions of dollars in costs, prosecutors finally have chance to lay out their case against R&B singer

Ed Pilkington in New York

21, May, 2008 @1:12 AM

Article image
Child pornography trial begins for US singer R Kelly

The singer, 41, is charged with 14 counts of child pornography, and faces up to 15 years in jail

Ed Pilkington in New York

20, May, 2008 @8:02 PM

Article image
R Kelly faces more child porn charges

American R&B singer R Kelly, who is awaiting trial on 21 counts of child pornography in Illinois, was arrested yesterday in Florida on additional child pornography charges.

Staff and agencies

23, Jan, 2003 @10:58 AM

A tribute to Sarah Palin, set to the music of R Kelly

Watch Conservatives4palin's YouTube video and shed a little tear for what might have been

Hadley Freeman

17, Aug, 2009 @3:22 PM

Article image
‘He put the fear of God in me’: key testimony from the R Kelly trial
The court heard of physical and sexual abuse from a ‘controlling’ singer who witnesses said acted with impunity

Adam Gabbatt

27, Sep, 2021 @7:25 PM

Article image
Fresh abuse investigations launched after R Kelly documentary
Prosecutors in Chicago and Atlanta appeal for new information after allegations of abuse are made in documentary about R&B star, who has long denied wrongdoing

Ben Beaumont-Thomas

09, Jan, 2019 @11:53 AM