R. Kelly Has Been Charged With Sexually Abusing Another Underage Girl
A federal indictment against R. Kelly was updated Friday to include new charges that the R&B singer abused another teenage girl. Prosecutors accuse Kelly of abusing the girl for as many as four years, beginning when she was 14 or 15 years old in the late 1990s.
It's the latest in a long string of charges against the multiplatinum recording artist. In December, he was charged with bribing a federal employee in order to obtain a fake ID for the late singer Aaliyah, who Kelly married in 1994 when she was 15 and he was 27. He also faces five more charges in New York, including kidnapping and sexual exploitation of a child. Prior to the updated indictment filed in Illinois, the singer was already set to face trial in that jurisdiction on charges including child pornography. Illinois federal prosecutors are now seeking the forfeiture of all assets from Kelly's production company and another company owned by his former manager, who has been charged with helping Kelly cover up his alleged crimes.
In 2008, Kelly was acquitted at trial on charges of child pornography, after the the family of his accused victim refused to cooperate with prosecutors. But Lifetime's Surviving R. Kelly documentary series sparked renewed public interest in the decades of child abuse accusations that have dogged the singer. Within weeks of the series' January 2019 debut, Kelly was charged with sexual abuse for the first time since his 2008 trial. The alleged victim in that case, who then refused to testify at trial, is now cooperating with federal prosecutors.
In a statement to CNN, Kelly's attorney said that the singer and his legal team "dispute" the new abuse charge. His trial date is set for April 27th.
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