R. Kelly hit with new sexual assault charges
Cook County prosecutors file new sexual assault charges against singer R. Kelly.
BEVERLY HILLS – Angelo Clary is still fighting to see his daughter.
The father of 21-year-old singer Azriel Clary spoke to Fox News on Sunday at the Critics’ Choice Real TV Awards about the massive void left behind by Azriel's absence allegedly at the hands of rapper R. Kelly who Clary says “brainwashed” his daughter.
“I haven't had time to speak to her, but as a father to another father – it's a feeling that you don't wish on anyone. It's a feeling that sometimes is like having a deceased child, and the only thing you're waiting on is to find the body,” Clary told us at the Beverly Hilton in Los Angeles.
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“And you would hate to have to put things into perspective like that. But, that's the emptiness you have on birthdays and holidays – and some of the most important things in your family occur and you get no phone calls or texts or anything. But you keep texting the numbers you have in response to keeping an open communication going.”
Angelo Clary attends the Critics' Choice Real TV Awards at The Beverly Hilton Hotel on June 02, 2019 in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Getty)
Kelly's lawyer, Steve Greenberg, told Fox News of Clary's remarks: "I think this is an individual who for whatever reason is going to milk his bad relationship with his daughter for as much personal benefit as he can." Kelly has consistently denied the claims.
However, Clary says the open line of communication he’s had with whom he assumes is his daughter only occurs via text messaging and his feeling is that the person he is conversing with is often someone claiming to be Azriel.
“Well nine times out of 10, it's not her – but I know she's okay. I do all types of things as a father to make sure that she's at least living, breathing, and I can contest to say okay 'Was she here?' You know, I've seen her or I've seen a picture of her or something like that,” said Clary. “I do the means that I can without getting in trouble to get her attention.”
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When asked about how he feels seeing other women share their harrowing experiences with the musician on the Lifetime docuseries “Surviving R. Kelly,” or watching Kelly’s outbursts during his interview with CBS’ Gayle King, Clary said he believes Kelly simply didn’t have anyone around willing to alert him of his alleged actions with underage girls and that Kelly has “so many people around him telling him he’s okay.”
Gayle King interviews R. Kelly on "CBS This Morning." (CBS)
“You have so much corruption going on around him to protect their own secret hidden agendas and past that, you know; why should he feel like he's doing anything wrong?” Clary speculated. “It's nothing any different than [what] he'd been doing for 20-30 years. Me, as a father watching it – it did show me that no matter what anybody can say to me on the Internet or anything – nobody can beat me down more than I beat myself because I had a choice and the chance to change that whole situation.”
AZRIEL CLARY CLAIMS HER PARENTS TRIED TO EXTORT R. KELLY WITH SEX VIDEOS
Azriel currently lives with Kelly and Kelly’s other girlfriend, Joycelyn Savage.
Kelly, for his part, alleged that the Clarys tried to "sell" their daughter to him when she was underage.
Azriel said of Angelo in a "CBS This Morning" interview in February, "He's very manipulative. He's the one you need to watch out for." She alleged that Angelo threatened to expose nude photos of her online if she didn't have Kelly send tens of thousands of dollars into his bank account.
"CBS This Morning" co-host Gayle King interviews two women who say they are in a relationship with R. Kelly. (CBS)
Angelo and Azriel’s mother, Alice Clary vehemently denied their daughter's claims.
“I believe that my daughter and her gift led me on a different path to allow me to trust someone that I shouldn't have put that much trust into," said Clary. "So every day I got to live with that. I live with that for my family, for my kids and for all the other kids that didn't have a father there, that I become their voice for. You know; I take responsibility for that.”
Clary said he certainly keeps up with the legal proceedings surrounding the Kelly case and has even spoken with many of the alleged victims – “the younger victims, the kids and the teenagers that had no choice in the matter.”
R. KELLY'S TEAM LIKELY ENABLED HIS SEXUAL ABUSE FOR YEARS, PROSECUTORS ALLEGE
“I just feel like any man that messes with a child is less than a man,” Clary resounded. “And, they can say it's a sickness, it's this. Well, when is somebody going to step up and get him the help? When are we going to stop saying he's sick, he's this, he's that. That's my whole thing.”
As for the outcome he hopes to see for the crooner, Clary said he only wants justice for his daughter and to see other women “released from him, away from him and starting their own lives” and for Kelly to “just become a regular guy.”
TIMELINE OF R. KELLY'S LIFE AND CAREER
“I don't really care about a hundred years in prison, 20 years in prison or a year in prison. I want to strip him of what made him,” said Clary.” “I want to send him back to being in the subway singing to a crowd because that's the most devastating punishment he will have to live with is stripping him from everything that made him who he is. I want to make him back Robert. That's what I want to do.”
Last week, Chicago prosecutors charged R. Kelly with 11 new sex-related charges involving one accuser, including some that carry a sentence of up to 30 years in prison.
Musician R. Kelly, center, arrives at the Leighton Criminal Court building for a hearing Tuesday, May 7, 2019, in Chicago. (AP)
The new charges against the Grammy Award-winning R&B singer included aggravated criminal assault, criminal sexual assault by force, criminal sexual abuse and criminal sexual abuse against a victim between the ages of 13 to 16, the Chicago Tribune reported.
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According to the case filing, the first eight counts were from alleged encounters between Jan. 1 and Jan. 31, 2010. Three others pertained to alleged encounters between May 1, 2009, and Jan. 31, 2010.
Kelly, who is free on $1 million bond following his February indictment in other sex abuse cases, is expected to appear in court for the new charges on June 6. He already faced 10 counts of aggravated sexual abuse involving four women years ago, three of whom were minors when the alleged abuse occurred.
He pleaded not guilty to the original charges.
In 2008, Kelly was acquitted of statutory rape.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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