A $ 1 million bail has been set in the case against American R & B singer R. Kelly. However, Kelly only has to deposit one-tenth of the amount of the bail, Judge John Fitzgerald Lyke Jr. said at the Chicago hearing. In addition, the singer must pass his passport if he wanted to get out of custody.
Kelly appeared in court this morning for a first hearing after standing up for the Chicago authorities on Friday night. The singer had previously been charged with sexual abuse in ten cases. The cases are from the years 1998 to 2010 and revolve around four sometimes underage victims. Three of the suspected victims were younger than 17 at the time of alleged abuse. Kelly had always denied all charges against him.
Kelly's lawyer Steve Greenberg said there is no evidence and no reason to believe the allegations are credible. "He's a rock star," Greenberg continued. "He does not need to have non-consensual sex."
Video is to show Kelly in sex with a minor
The prosecution accuses the 52-year-old of abusing a minor girl who asked for an autograph during his 2008 trial. Kelly had sex with her several times between May 2009 and January 2010, reports the Chicago Tribune. She gave the police a T-shirt and preliminary tests showed a DNA match with Kelly.
The prosecution is also in possession of a video that is supposed to show Kelly having sex with a girl who was supposed to be 14 years old at the time. From such a video had already reported on Friday, the star lawyer Michael Avenatti. "After continuing sexual abuse and sexual assault against underage girls over the age of 25, the day of reckoning has come for R. Kelly," Avenatti wrote on Twitter before the prosecution announced the case. "It's over."
Avenatti is one of the US's most prominent lawyers and most recently represented former porn actress Stormy Daniels on her defamation lawsuit following an alleged affair with President Donald Trump. How he got to the video, Avenatti did not say.
Allegations go back to the nineties
R. Kelly ("I Believe I Can Fly") was accused of sexual abuse of minors in a TV documentary in early January. These go back to the 1990s. Lawyer Greenberg told CNN that he believes the women are lying.
On Thursday, two other women accused Kelly in New York of abusing her. The women, 39 and 40 years old today, are said to have been 15 and 16 years old at the time of the attacks. They explained that the singer had met her at a concert and proposed to them common sex.
The first allegations against R. Kelly were made known 20 years ago, the triple Grammy winner has not yet been convicted. A marriage with the now deceased singer Aaliyah, who was under the age of marriage at the time of marriage, was annulled. In 2002, Kelly was arrested in connection with a sex video on suspicion of child pornography. In 2008, all allegations were dropped against him.