R. Kelly Charged With 10 Counts of Sexual Abuse in Chicago

R&B singer R. Kelly has been finally charged for 10 counts of sexual assault in Chicago after nearly two decades of allegations of sexual misconduct.

He was married to a young singer who turned out to be 15 years old. There were claims that he controlled women in a cultlike atmosphere. An infamous sex tape. None of it meaningfully stood in his way.

The authorities are accusing him of aggravated criminal sexual abuse involving four victims, three of whom were underage, according to the Cook County state’s attorney Kim Foxx. Aggravated criminal sexual abuse can carry a sentence of three to seven years in prison for each count. Mr. Kelly faces 10 of them.

Ms. Foxx said the events occurred between 1998 and 2010. Mr. Kelly was accused of ejaculating on a fourth victim, identified by the initials L.C., during an attempted criminal sexual assault.

This is not the first time that Mr. Kelly has been charged with a crime. He was arrested on child pornography charges in 2002 over a tape prosecutors said showed him having sex with and urinating on an underage girl. He was acquitted on all 14 counts he faced in the case, in 2008.

Mr. Kelly came under renewed scrutiny after the documentary “Surviving R. Kelly” was broadcast on Lifetime in January. The six-part series included testimony from several women who accused the singer of abuse. The celebrity lawyer Michael Avenatti said last week that he had obtained a video showing Mr. Kelly having sex with a 14-year-old girl, and had given it to the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office in Chicago. He has said that Mr. Kelly and the girl refer to her age multiple times in the video, which is more than 40 minutes long.

On Thursday, two additional women came forward tat a news conference in New York organized by their lawyer, Gloria Allred, to accuse Mr. Kelly of sexual abuse and misconduct when they were minors. The women, Latresa Scaff, 40, and Rochelle Washington, 39, said they met the singer after a concert in the mid-1990s when they were 16 and 15; they said he asked for a threesome and had sex with Ms. Scaff.

“This may not be the only prosecution of Mr. Kelly, because we are aware of other open investigations in other jurisdictions,” Ms. Allred said on Friday.

Steven Greenberg, Mr. Kelly’s lawyer, did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but he has said that Mr. Kelly “denies that he has engaged in any illegal conduct, of any kind whatsoever.”

“We’re glad to see the allegations against R. Kelly are being taken seriously and hope that these charges empower victims to come forward,” RAINN, the Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network, said in a statement. “The survivors who shared their stories showed admirable courage and strength.”

Source: New York Times