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 The 52-year-old performer, whose real name is Robert Sylvester
Kelly, was charged in a 10-count indictment returned on Friday
by a Cook County grand jury in Chicago, and later surrendered to
police. If convicted, he would face up to seven years in prison
for each count.
Bond was set on Saturday at $1 million, and Kelly remained
locked up over the weekend.
On Monday morning, Kelly, wearing an orange jail jumpsuit,
appeared in a Chicago courtroom before Associate Judge Lawrence
Flood and spoke only to confirm his name. His lawyer, Steven
Greenberg, entered a not guilty plea on Kelly's behalf.
"Mr. Kelly has done absolutely nothing wrong," Greenberg told
reporters. "No one has showed us any evidence that he has done
anything wrong."
The recording star was released from custody several hours later
after $100,000 cash bail was posted by a friend, county
sheriff's spokeswoman Sophia Ansari said.
Kelly, best known for his hit single "I Believe I Can Fly," had
been confined to a prison hospital ward to keep him apart from
the general inmate population, his lawyer said.
Prosecutors say Kelly's alleged victims include a teenager he
met when she sought an autograph during his 2008 trial on child
pornography charges, another he met at her 16th-birthday party
and his hairdresser, who was then 24. The singer was acquitted
of the 2008 pornography charges.
A fourth charge is based on a videotape that purportedly shows
Kelly and a 14-year-old girl engaged in sexual acts, according
to prosecutors.
Prosecutors in the 2008 case also introduced a video as evidence
against Kelly, but the victim did not testify. The new charges
emerged in a different environment, after the #MeToo movement
had made accusers more willing to come forward and law
enforcement more likely to believe them.
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Attorney Michael Avenatti, who said he represents two of the alleged
victims in the indictment and a third accuser, told reporters after
Monday's hearing that he had turned over a second videotape to
prosecutors earlier in the day.
The 55-minute video dated from around 2000 also showed a 14-year-old
girl, though Avenatti did not specify whether it was the same girl
as in the first video. Avenatti said he obtained both tapes from two
"whistleblowers" he also represents, but none of his clients appear
in either video.
The charges against the performer came just weeks after the Lifetime
television network aired the six-hour documentary series "Surviving
R. Kelly," in which multiple women accused him of sexual misconduct
and abuse.
Los Angeles-based lawyer Gloria Allred said she represents six women
who have come forward to accuse Kelly of sexual abuse, including
some who were featured in the documentary. But she said none of her
clients are included in the Cook County case.
At least four law enforcement agencies outside Cook County have
opened investigations into her clients' complaints, Allred told a
news conference on Monday, including the New York Police Department
and federal prosecutors in Brooklyn.
(Reporting by Karen Pierog, additional reporting by Jackie Botts and
Jonathan Allen in New York; editing by Bill Tarrant and Jonathan
Oatis)
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