UPDATE 2/26/2019
Robert Kelly walked out of a Chicago jail on Monday, February 25th, 2019 after posting a $100,000 bail that will allow the R&B singer to go free while he awaits his trial. He was being held on charges that he sexually abused four people, including three underage girls. As a condition of his release, Kelly is forbidden from having any contact with women younger than 18.
The judge set bond at $1 million, meaning that Kelly only had to post 10 percent of that amount in order to go free. Court records show that a 47-year-old woman posted the bail, identifying herself as “a friend” of Kelly on the bond slip.
UPDATED 2019/02/25
R&B singer R. Kelly pleaded not guilty on Monday, February 25th, 2019 to 10 counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse. He has not yet posted bond, which was set at $1 million and his lawyer, Steven Greenberg said that the singer is being held in the jail’s hospital for security reasons. He also told reporters that R. Kelly would have the money to post bond on Monday evening.
Kelly’s plea comes after prosecutors in Chicago put forward four victims of the singers. One was a girl that Kelly met at a restaurant at her 16th birthday celebration. Another was an autograph seeker, also then 16 who said had a sex with Kelly with three months beginning when she was 16.
A 24-year-old hairdresser for Kelly also came forward, alleging that Kelly tried to force her to perform oral sex on him. According to court documents, she reported the incident within two years of its occurrence. And gave law enforcement officials a shirt she was wearing, which had Kelly’s semen on it. Greenberg says that this encounter may have been consensual.
The fourth accuser in this case is the same woman who refused to testify against Kelly in 2008. At the time, Kelly was facing child pornography charges stemming from a tape that prosecutors said showed him having sex with and urinating on an underage girl. Prosecutors say that they have a different tape of Kelly and the girl having sex, removing any concerns of double jeopardy.
Kelly is due back in court on March 22nd.
