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Scott Olson/Getty ImagesLast night, R. Kelly was arrested while walking his dog in Chicago, and charged with 13 counts, including sexual exploitation of children, conspiracy to defraud the United States, coercion and child pornography. Now the indictment has been unsealed, offering more details on the charges.
The charges are based on R Kelly’s alleged sexual contact in the 1990s with five female minors, identified in court records as Minor 1-5. The alleged sexual contact and sexual acts were recorded, court records said.
The indictment also said that Kelly and his business manager Derrell McDavid obstructed justice by paying victims and witnesses not to cooperate with law enforcement.
A separate, five-count indictment returned in Brooklyn, NY, puts R. Kelly at the center of an “enterprise” of managers, body guards, drivers and personal assistants who were hired “to promote R. Kelly’s music and the R. Kelly brand, and to recruit women and girls to engage in illegal sexual activity with Kelly.”
A select few were offered wristbands at R. Kelly concerts, court records said, to “manage the flow of women and girls who were directly interacting with Kelly.”
The indictment also specified the rules that Kelly’s sexual partners were required to follow, such as not being allowed to leave a room without permission from Kelly, calling the singer “Daddy,” wearing baggy clothing and not looking at other men.
Friday morning, a rep for Kelly, Darrell Johnson, spoke in Atlanta, GA. Johnson claimed the charges Kelly was arrested for were “nothing new.” During his remarks, the family of one of Kelly’s alleged victims, Jocelyn Savage, yelled out, “This is my daughter!” and “Where is she at?”
Johnson said he’d met Jocelyn six times and seen her come in and out of Kelly’s apartment at Chicago’s Trump Tower. He added that he’d never seen anything “harmful” done to her.
R. Kelly’s next court appearance is set for today at 2:45pm E.T. in Chicago. He’ll ask for a removal hearing on the New York charges.
Kelly, 52, pleaded not guilty in a Chicago court last February to ten counts of aggravated sexual abuse allegedly involving three girls and one woman. Then in June, he pleaded not guilty to an additional 11 counts of sex-related charges, including four aggravated criminal sexual assault charges. Each of those four charges carries a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison.
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