“Prosecutors reveal sordid details of sex abuse allegations against R. Kelly as judge sets $1 million bond”, Chicago Tribune
By Megan Crepeau, Jason Meisner and Lolly Bowean, February 23, 2019
Superstar singer R. Kelly was ordered held on $1 million bond Saturday by a Cook County judge who called the allegations of sexual abuse laid out by prosecutors “disturbing.”
Prosecutors alleged Kelly sexually abused one woman and three underage girls in separate attacks over a span of a dozen years.
Prosecutors said Kelly’s 24-year-old hairdresser came to braid his hair on Chicago’s Near North Side in 2003, but instead he greeted her with his pants down and tried to force oral sex on her.
When she resisted, Kelly ejaculated on her and spit in her face several times, prosecutors alleged.
DNA recovered from the alleged victim’s shirt matches Kelly, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors alleged Kelly also sexually abused one underage girl who had sought his autograph while attending his 2008 trial in Chicago on child pornography charges.
The girl had sex with Kelly multiple times between May 2009 and January 2010, according to prosecutors. At times, he spit on her, slapped her in the face and choked her, they alleged.
She saved a shirt from one encounter and gave it to police in suburban Olympia Fields, where Kelly had a residence. Preliminary testing results show a DNA match to Kelly, prosecutors said.
Kelly met another victim as she celebrated her 16th birthday at a restaurant, Assistant State’s Attorney Jennifer Gonzalez said in court. The singer’s associate gave her Kelly’s business card, but her mother intervened. However, the girl took the card from her mother’s purse, contacted the singer and began having regular sexual contact with him, prosecutors alleged.
Prosecutors also have a videotape purportedly showing Kelly having sex with yet another girl, who was 14 at the time. High-profile attorney Michael Avenatti has said he recovered the tape and turned it over to prosecutors last month.
In ordering that bond be set at $250,000 for each of the four separate indictments, Judge John Fitzgerald Lyke Jr. called the allegations against Kelly “disturbing” and barred him from contact with the alleged victims or any witnesses in the case.
He also banned the singer from contact with anyone younger than 18.
Kelly’s attorney, Steven Greenberg, sought a lower bond, telling the judge that Kelly’s finances were in disarray, his record label had dumped him and that he posed no threat to flee.
“He’s lived here his whole life,” Greenberg said before making a reference to Kelly’s hit “I Believe I Can Fly.”
“Contrary to the song, he doesn’t like to fly,” he said. “He doesn’t travel unless he absolutely has to.”
Greenberg called the $1 million bond “exceedingly reasonable” and said he believed that Kelly could raise the necessary 10 percent — $100,000 — to win his release. It was uncertain if that might happen as soon as this weekend
“He’s trying to get it together,” Greenberg said. “… He doesn’t have it sitting in the bank, sitting in a shoe box, sitting anywhere.”
As of 9 p.m. Saturday, the deadline to post bond, Kelly was still in custody at the Cook County Jail.
Kelly, 52, who has been dogged by accusations of sexually predatory behavior for years, was indicted Friday on a combined 10 counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse for alleged misconduct between 1998 and 2010.
He turned himself in at the Central District station just after 8 p.m. Friday, emerging from a dark cargo van with tinted windows into a scrum of photographers and reporters. He was handcuffed and led into a lockup with a concerned look on his face.
The counts each carry a maximum seven years in prison upon conviction but could also result in probation.
During Saturday’s 17-minute hearing, Kelly stood facing the judge in a black hoodie with his arms behind his back, frowning at times as he kept his eyes downcast.
He shook his head several times in disagreement as prosecutors detailed their evidence, but he otherwise showed little emotion. At one point he leaned over to whisper something to his lawyer, who patted Kelly on the shoulder.
Several relatives of the alleged victims stood in the courtroom throughout the hearing.
Kelly’s appearance at the Leighton Criminal Court Building comes more than a decade after his acquittal on child pornography charges following a sensational 2008 trial at the same courthouse.
Three of the new indictments allege Kelly sexually abused three underage victims. The fourth indictment charged that Kelly sexually abused an adult in February 2003 – while he was free on bond on the then-pending child pornography charges.
The singer, whose legal name is Robert S. Kelly, has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing.
Kelly is scheduled to return to the courthouse Monday so a judge can be assigned to oversee his case and he can plead not guilty to the 10 counts.