R. Kelly is facing new allegation of sexual abuse of a minor in revised federal indictment
An updated federal indictment against R. Kelly was made public Friday, revealing a new allegation of sexual abuse of a minor against the singer.
Kelly, who is facing charges of sexual abuse in multiple jurisdictions, was charged Friday in a 13-count superseding indictment with multiple counts of child pornography and other crimes.
In the new filing in US District Court in Illinois, which is largely similar to his original indictment filed last year, Kelly is accused for the first time of sexually abusing a teenage girl identified as “Minor 6.”
Kelly met the girl around 1997 or 1998 when she was 14 or 15 and the abuse lasted for up to four years, the indictment states.
Another girl, who had been identified as Minor 2 in the original document, was removed from the victims listed in the indictment.
The revised indictment also says that prosecutors are now seeking the forfeiture of all assets from Kelly’s production company known as Bass Productions and a separate company owned by his former business manager, Derrel McDavid, who is a co-defendant in the case.
Kelly, whose full name is Robert Sylvester Kelly, faces a separate five-count indictment in US District Court in New York. The indictment accuses Kelly of sexual exploitation of a child, kidnapping, forced labor and violations of the Mann Act involving the coercion and transportation of women and girls in interstate commerce to engage in illegal sexual activity from 1999 to the present.
The singer has pleaded not guilty to all criminal charges against him. He remains jailed without bond at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Chicago.
On Friday, Kelly’s attorney, Steven Greenberg, said the updated indictment was not unexpected.
“But the allegations seem to be more of the same old, same old. And just like with the past allegations we dispute them. We look forward to Robert’s day in court, to his trial and to the day that he can walk free,” Greenberg told CNN.
Federal prosecutors in Illinois claim Kelly videotaped himself having sex with at least four girls under the age of 18 beginning in 1998.
A few years later, after Kelly learned that some of those videos were missing from his “collection,” he and others began paying “hundreds of thousands of dollars” to several people to recover them, court documents said.
Two of Kelly’s former employees, McDavid and Milton “June” Brown are also charged in the indictment. McDavid’s attorney, Vadim Glozman, said the updated filing does not change the defense for his client.
“We’re looking forward to our time in court and getting him vindicated from these charges,” Glozman said.
An attorney for Brown declined to comment on the new document, saying she hadn’t seen it on Friday.
A trial date for the case has been set for April 27, but it could be delayed due to the updated indictment.
