Singer R. Kelly arrested in Chicago on aggravated sexual abuse charges, capping star’s dramatic downfall

In a bombshell development, R&B superstar R. Kelly was indicted on Friday on charges he sexually abused four victims, three of them underage, over a span of a dozen years.

Kelly was charged with allegedly abusing the one adult victim in February 2003 – at the same time he was already fighting child pornography charges of filming himself having sex with an underage girl.

The four separate indictments charged Kelly with a combined 10 counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse for alleged misconduct occurring between 1998 and 2010.

Three of the indictments refer to girls who were under 17 at the time of the alleged sexual misconduct, identifying them by initials only.

Soon after 8pm, Kelly, wearing a bright blue coat, walked a few feet through a crowd of reporters and photographers to surrender to authorities at the Central District police station at 18th and State streets. Moments later, two officers inside the station led him away in handcuffs.

A county judge issued a warrant for Kelly’s arrest on Friday morning, court records show.

A bond hearing was scheduled for Saturday afternoon at the Leighton Criminal Court Building, Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx said.

If convicted of the Class 2 felony charges, Kelly would face a sentence ranging from probation to up to seven years in prison.

This marks the second time Kelly, 52, whose legal name is Robert Kelly, has been charged with a sex crime by Cook County prosecutors. Armed with a sex tape, prosecutors indicted the singer in 2002 on child pornography charges, but following a sensational trial six years later, a jury acquitted him of charges alleging he filmed himself having sex with his goddaughter, a girl estimated to have been as young as 13.

Friday’s charges come in the wake of reporting in Buzzfeed and The New Yorker by Chicago-based journalist Jim DeRogatis and after damning allegations in a recent Lifetime documentary series.

Citing the “deeply, deeply disturbing” allegations raised in the documentary, Foxx made an unusual public plea last month for any Kelly accusers to come forward.

High-profile lawyer Michael Avenatti had teased the charges for days, telling reporters he gave Foxx a videotape he unearthed that showed Kelly having sex with a 14-year-old girl.

At a news conference on Friday afternoon, Avenatti said the videotape – a VHS from about 1999 and more than 40 minutes long – shows Kelly on two separate days engaged in sexual acts with the girl. He said the audio was clear and the video of “far superior” quality than the tape used at the 2008 trial.

Both the victim and Kelly referred to the girl’s young age more than 10 separate times on the tape, according to Avenatti.

“This was in no way role-playing during some sexual act,” said Avenatti, who first gained national attention while representing porn star Stormy Daniels in her allegations that President Donald Trump bought her silence about their alleged affair during the 2016 campaign. “It is clear that this young lady was 14 years of age.”

The girl in the tape was one of the four victims cited in Friday’s indictments, he said.

Avenatti expressed confidence Kelly would face additional charges in other jurisdictions and would end up serving extensive prison time.

Kelly’s alleged victims were “among the most vulnerable in our society … girls that came from very tough times and tough neighbourhoods”, he said.

Avenatti also criticised Kelly’s managers and lawyers over the years, claiming “enablers” helped Kelly get away with years of alleged abuse because they were looking for a payday.

“They looked the other way while young girls were taken advantage of because they didn’t want to kill the golden goose,” he said. “It is disgusting, and every parent in America should be disgusted.”

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Steven Greenberg, Kelly’s lawyer, has consistently denied the latest allegations of wrongdoing and expressed confidence the singer would be cleared of any charges.

The alleged abuse occurred years ago, but prosecutors were able to still bring charges against Kelly. Three of the indictments fall within the Illinois statute of limitations because charges were brought within 20 years of each of the alleged victims’ 18th birthdays, according to court records.

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Records show the fourth charge, involving the February 2003 incident, could have been prosecuted at any time, since Kelly’s DNA was entered into a database within 10 years of the alleged incident and the victim reported the abuse within three years.

The charges come about six weeks after Foxx called on any Kelly accusers to come forward, citing the allegations in the documentary series detailing accusations of sexual misconduct against the singer.

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The six-hour documentary, Surviving R. Kelly, aired on the Lifetime channel and claimed he manipulated young women into joining a “sex cult”, forcing them to stay with him against their will and keeping them under his control.