R. Kelly arrested again, new federal sex crime charges include child porn and enticing a minor
R&B singer R. Kelly was arrested by the feds in Chicago yesterday around 7 p.m. on new sex crimes charges, above and beyond sex crime charges he was already facing. His newest indictment lists 13 counts, including sex crimes and obstruction of justice, according to Time. Joseph Fitzpatrick, spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s Office, stated that the new federal charges levied against Kelly also include child porn and enticement of a minor.
The 52-year-old singer has previously been charged by the state of Illinois with two sets of multiple sex-crimes (including aggravated criminal sexual assault, criminal sexual assault by force, aggravated criminal sexual abuse and aggravated criminal sexual abuse against an accuser who was between the ages of 13 and 17).
Kelly was initially charged with 10 courts in February; prosecutors unveiled eight more criminal charges against him in early June. He has pleaded not guilty to all the charges. ~ USA Today
Kelly is also looking at a separate five-count indictment in New York City that includes racketeering charges.
The former professional basketball player’s legal woes, mostly surrounding sexual crimes with underage girls, dates back to the 1990s. He has always steadfastly denied all of those allegations.
Those legal woes reached a head recently following the release of the TV documentary “Surviving R. Kelly,” which brought Kelly’s child sexual abuse allegations more into the public eye. Another televised special from the BBC which aired only last year, “R Kelly: Sex, Girls & Videotapes,” also served to publicize alleged criminal aspects of the singer’s sex life as it explored possibilities that he was “holding women against their will in his home in Atlanta and running a degrading sex cult – allegations he denies.”
Following those TV specials, prosecutors in Illinois opened new investigations into Kelly’s activities which led to the charges filed against him in February and May.
Following those February charges, Kelly was arrested and spent a week in jail last March for falling about eight months behind in child support payments for his three children who are in the custody of his ex-wife. ABC News shared that Kelly “was acquitted of prior child pornography charges in 2008, five years after initially being arrested over a video that purported to show the singer with an underage girl.”
For more on Kelly’s recent arrest on new federal sex crime charges, see the video accompanying this article.
~ Written by Richard Webster, Ace News Today / Connect with Richard on Facebook and Twitter
Also see:
- ‘Stranger Things’ season 3 breaks Netflix viewing records
- Disney star Cameron Boyce dies at the tender age of 20
- Billionaire Jeffrey Epstein arrested and charged with child sex trafficking
