R. Kelly charged with soliciting 17-year-old girl in Minnesota
R. Kelly, the 52-year-old singer, has been charged with prostitution and solicitation in Minnesota after allegedly inviting a 17-year-old girl to his hotel room and paying her $200 to dance naked with him in 2001. Each felony charge is punishable by up to five years in prison.
R. Kelly is facing sexual abuse allegations involving a new accuser, an updated federal indictment -- unsealed on Friday in Chicago -- against the disgraced R&B singer revealed.
The 13-count superseding indictment did not tack on any additional charges against Kelly, however, the filing does reference a new accuser called “Minor 6,” all while removing any previous mention of a “Minor 2," meaning there are still a total of five alleged victims in the Chicago federal case.
The updated indictment includes multiple counts of child pornography and isn't substantially different from the original July indictment, which also had 13 counts.
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While few details are made available about “Minor 6,” the indictment claims the new accuser first came in contact with Kelly around 1997 or 1998 – when she would have been 14 or 15 years old. The filing further claims the disgraced singer engaged in sexual contact or sexual acts around that time and several years before she turned 18.
In this photo taken and released by the Chicago Police Dept., Friday, Feb. 22, 2019, R&B singer R. Kelly is photographed during booking at a police station in Chicago, Il. R. Kelly, the R&B star who has been trailed for decades by allegations that he violated underage girls and women and held some as virtual slaves, was charged with aggravated sexual abuse involving four victims, including at least three between the ages of 13 and 17. (Chicago Police Dept. via AP)
In a tweet later Friday, Kelly's lead attorney, Steve Greenberg, said, “We continue to fight for him and look forward to the day he is free.” He added the hashtag #notguilty.
Kelly, 53, will be arraigned under the reworked indictment. That could happen March 5, a date set previously for a status hearing. The trial date remains April 27, though that will likely be pushed to later this year.
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It's unclear why Minor 2 no longer appears to be on the prosecutors' list of alleged victims.
Kelly faces several dozen counts of state and federal sexual misconduct charges in Illinois, Minnesota and New York, from sexual assault to heading a racketeering scheme aimed at supplying Kelly with girls.
The Grammy Award winner was jailed in July and has been awaiting trial at a Chicago federal jail a block from the courthouse where he attends pretrial hearings. He has participated in hearings in his New York case by video.
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The federal charges in Chicago accuse Kelly of filming himself having sex with underage girls and of paying off potential witnesses in his 2008 trial — at which he was acquitted — to get them to change their stories.
Kelly has denied ever sexually abusing anyone.
In December, he pleaded not guilty via a video feed to added charges in New York that he schemed to pay for a fake ID for an unnamed female a day before he married R&B singer Aaliyah, then 15, in a secret ceremony in 1994.
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Drama surrounding Kelly's case included what authorities say was a fight in January between two of the singer's girlfriends living at his home in Trump Tower in Chicago. Joycelyn Savage, 24, has pleaded not guilty to punching and kicking 22-year-old Azriel Clary.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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