I can't believe it myself! R. Kelly was charged with multiple counts of criminal sexual abuse involving multiple victims in a Chicago court Friday after decades of rumors and allegations that the R&B star was abusing women and underage girls.
Kelly has denied allegations of sexual misconduct involving women and underage girls for decades. Neither Kelly’s legal representative nor the Cook County prosecutor's office immediately responded to Fox News’ request for comment on the charges.
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The singer, whose full name is Robert Kelly, is one of the top-selling recording artists of all time. He has won multiple Grammys, including for his hit song "I Believe I Can Fly." His arrest sets the stage for another #MeToo-era celebrity trial after Bill Cosby went to prison last year, as former Hollywood studio boss Harvey Weinstein is awaiting trial.
Kelly was charged a week after Michael Avenatti, the attorney whose clients have included porn star Stormy Daniels, said he recently gave Chicago prosecutors new video evidence of the singer having sex with an underage girl. It was not immediately clear if the charges were connected to that video.
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In 2008, a jury acquitted Kelly of child pornography charges over a graphic video that prosecutors said showed him having sex with a girl as young as 13. He and the young woman allegedly depicted with him denied they were in the 27-minute video, even though the picture quality was good and witnesses testified it was them, and she did not take the stand. Kelly could have gotten 15 years in prison.
Kelly has been accused of holding women and girls against their will in Chicago, where he has a recording studio, and Georgia, where he has property.
Kelly's attorney, Steve Greenberg, said earlier this year that his client was the victim of a TV hit piece and that Kelly "never knowingly had sex with an underage woman, he never forced anyone to do anything, he never held anyone captive, he never abused anyone."
Despite accusations that span decades, the singer and songwriter who rose from poverty on Chicago's South Side has retained a sizable following. He has written numerous hits for himself and other artists, including Celine Dion, Michael Jackson and Lady Gaga. His collaborators have included Jay-Z and Usher.
Kelly broke into the R&B scene in 1993 with his first solo album, "12 Play," which produced such popular sex-themed songs as "Bump N' Grind" and "Your Body's Callin'."
Months after those successes, the then-27-year-old Kelly faced allegations he married 15-year-old Aaliyah, the R&B star who later died in a plane crash in the Bahamas. Kelly was the lead songwriter and producer of Aaliyah's 1994 debut album.
Kelly and Aaliyah never confirmed the marriage, though Vibe magazine published a copy of the purported marriage license. Court documents later obtained by The Chicago Sun-Times showed Aaliyah admitted lying about her age on the license.
Jim DeRogatis, a longtime music critic for the Sun-Times, played a key role in drawing the attention of law enforcement to Kelly. In 2002, he received the sex tape in the mail that was central to Kelly's 2008 trial. He turned it over to prosecutors. In 2017, DeRogatis wrote a story for BuzzFeed about the allegations Kelly was holding women against their will in Georgia.
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