Embattled R&B singer R. Kelly was arrested Thursday night in Chicago on new federal sex-crime charges, just months once he was charged at the state level with abuse and aggravated sexual abuse.
The 13-count indictment, brought by the U.S. attorney’s workplace for the Northern District of Illinois, includes charges of child pornography, engaging a minor to have interaction in criminal sexual intercourse and obstruction of justice, Joseph D. Fitzpatrick, an assistant U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, told The Washington Post.
Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn unsealed a separate five-count indictment against Kelly on Friday, inculpatory Kelly of, among alternative things, leading a racketeering enterprise for 2 decades — qualitative analysis from 1999 and continued as recently as February of 2018.
According to a letter filed by Richard P. Donoghue, U.S. lawyer for the Eastern District of new York, with the court, Kelly participated throughout that point in “the sexual exploitation of kids, coercing and transporting ladies and ladies to have interaction in illegal sexual intercourse, kidnapping, and forced labor. R&B singer R. Kelly Accused Of A New Crime and was in remission in Chicago for 13 counts of federal sex trafficking and obstruction of justice charges, following 2 arrests in February, one among that resulted in additional than 10 state-level counts of aggravated criminal sex crime, and is to boot charged with federal racketeering in new York.
- Kelly, whose real name is Robert Sylvester Kelly, was walking his dog outside his Trump Tower residence. Once he was taken into custody. Kelly was released on $100,000 bail (posted by a friend) following the February charges.
- The 13-count indictment was filed by Illinois. Kelly is anticipated to receive extra federal racketeering charges Friday in New York.
- Thursday’s indictment is Kelly’s initial time facing federal charges.
- U.S. Attorney Richard P. Donoghue suspects Kelly and his associates of a “racketeering enterprise that preyed upon women and girls who attended his concerts so that the victims might be offered to have interaction in illegal sexual intercourse with him at a moment’s notice.”
- Kelly’s record label, Sony Music, dropped him in January, and former collaborators—including girl Gaga, who removed him from her track “Do What U Want”—distanced themselves from the singer.
- With 12 studio albums and 75 million records sold-out, Kelly is one among the foremost successful R&B artists of all time. along with his several court and agency tax battles, however, reports recommend his net value hovers around $100,000.
- For years, his employees — managers, bodyguards, drivers, and private assistants — recruited ladies and underage ladies as sexual partners for Kelly, consistent with the indictment. The indictment says staff generally found these ladies at Kelly’s concerts and invited them backstage; alternative times the singer flew them across the country to satisfy him on the road. Often, prosecutors say, the sexual intercourse was recorded and photographed.
- Kelly, consistent with the indictment, had “rules”: the women were to decision him “Daddy;” they weren’t allowed to go away their rooms to eat or head to the toilet while not his permission; they’d to wear baggy covering once not going with him to AN event; and that they were instructed to stay their heads down and were prohibited from viewing other men.
