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New lawsuit filed against R. Kelly for allegedly threatening accusers

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Antonio Perez/Chicago Tribune/Tribune News Service via Getty Images

R. Kelly is facing even more legal problems.

After the Chicago singer was convicted on nine criminal counts by a federal jury in New York City in September, he and his manager now are being sued for allegedly threatening his accusers.

Lizette Martinez, Lisa Van Allen and Faith Rogers, who claim they were sexually abused by the 54-year-old convict, filed the lawsuit in Manhattan Supreme Court this week, alleging that “Kelly and his inner circle…began an orchestrated effort to silence, harass, bribe and intimidate those brave young women and their friends and family,” as reported by Page Six.

They claim that Kelly’s manager, Donnell Russell, tried to prevent the 2018 premiere of the docuseries Surviving R. Kelly at a New York City theater by anonymously calling in a shooting threat at the venue.

Russell was arrested last year for allegedly making the anonymous threat to the Neuehouse theater on December 4, 2018, which caused an evacuation. The case is pending trial.

Russell and two other men, Richard Arline and Michael Williams, were also accused of trying to intimidate and bribe Kelly’s victims. Both Arline and Williams pleaded guilty in the case.

“This lawsuit in no way connects Mr. Kelly to the alleged intentional acts of Donnell Russell,” Kelly’s lawyer, Jennifer Bonjean, told Page Six.

As previously reported, R. Kelly is set to go in trial again on August 1, 2022, this time in his native Chicago, in a federal case that includes charges of child pornography, obstruction of justice and sexual abuse.

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