Washington: Singer-songwriter R. Kelly has turned himself into the Chicago police, hours after being charged with sexual abuse allegations.
On Friday night, hours after the singer was indicted by a grand jury on 10 counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse against four alleged victims, Kelly was taken into custody, reported People.
Kelly was seen walking into the police precinct, he was surrounded by bodyguards with a sombre and depressed look on his face.
Chief Communications Officer Anthony Guglielmi confirmed the news on his Twitter handle writing, “Singer/songwriter Robert Kelly (R. Kelly) is under arrest and in #ChicagoPolice custody in reference to the indictment announced by Cook County state’s Attorney Kimberly Foxx.”
“The defendant will appear in court tomorrow afternoon,” Guglielmi added.
At a press conference in Chicago on Friday, Foxx revealed the charges against the singer. All of his alleged victims were referred by their initials, and three were particularly referred to as under the age of 17.
TMZ reported that in a grand jury hearing in Chicago, two women alleged that Kelly had sex with minors and reportedly turned over physical evidence to prosecutors.
However, Kelly’s lawyer Steve Greenberg alleged that Cook County State Attorney Kimberly M. Foxx “succumbed to public pressure” and thus charged Kelly with the alleged crimes. He insists that the singer is “an innocent man,” reported E! News.
The alleged incidents took place between May 1998 and January 2010.
“I think all the women are lying,” Greenberg claimed in a press conference on Friday evening.
Greenberg also alleged that the charges against his client constitute a double jeopardy. He stated in the press conference, “One of the charges appears to involve the same alleged victim from the earlier case, and double jeopardy should power that case. He won that case. The jury heard the facts in that case.”
It has been just a few weeks since the Lifetime documentary-series revealed years of allegations of sexual misconduct against the 52-year-old singer. However, Kelly has denied any allegations of abuse and misconduct over the years.
Allegations of sexual misconduct by Kelly towards young women date back to more than 20 years.
Kelly was charged with child pornography in 2000 after a video surfaced that alleged to show him having sex with an underage woman. However, he was cleared off all the charges in 2008 after that woman declined to testify against him.
In 1995, when Kelly was 27 years old, he briefly married the late singer Aaliyah, who was 15 years old at that time. In ‘Surviving R. Kelly’ (a documentary series in which accusers came forward with allegations of sexual, mental and physical abuse against the singer) an executive who formerly worked with Kelly says he forged Aaliyah’s birth date on the marriage license to state that she was 18 and another witness said she saw Kelly and Aaliyah having sex.
Last year, reports of Kelly holding women captive in a “sex cult” were published. Multiple other reports have surfaced over the years.
[source_without_link]ANI[/source_without_link]