R. Kelly pleaded not guilty in Chicago on Monday, days after he was indicted on 10 counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse. Mr. Kelly appeared in court in an orange jumpsuit with “DOC” printed on the back.
Prosecutors in Chicago have put forward four victims, including one teenage autograph seeker whom they say Mr. Kelly, the RB singer, had sex with for months beginning when she was 16 years old.
Another was a girl he met at a restaurant at her 16th birthday celebration.
A third was a 24-year-old hair dresser of his, who told prosecutors that Mr. Kelly tried to force her to perform oral sex on him. Court documents said she reported that incident to law enforcement within two years of when it occurred and handed over a shirt she was wearing that day, which DNA analysis showed had his semen on it. It was not clear why Mr. Kelly was not charged in connection with this at the time. His lawyer, Steven Greenberg, has said it may have been a consensual encounter.
[Read more about the case here.]
For years, Mr. Kelly, whose real name is Robert Kelly, seemed largely immune to accusations that he sexually abused minors and kept women in a cultlike environment, shielded by a series of nondisclosure agreements tied to confidential settlements with women who say he victimized them. But his behavior came under renewed scrutiny in January after the documentary “Surviving R. Kelly,” which chronicled the allegations against him, aired on lifetime.
Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/25/arts/music/r-kelly-plea-not-guilty.html?partner=rss&emc=rss
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