Embattled singer R. Kelly has been hit with new federal charges in Chicago adding allegations that he sexually abused another minor victim for four years starting in 1997.
A superseding indictment made public Friday alleged Kelly sexually abused a girl identified in the charges only as “Minor 6.”
Minor 6 appears to replace another victim in the earlier indictment, an underage girl previously identified as Minor 2.
In addition, the charges seek for the first time forfeiture of all assets of Kelly’s production company, Bass Productions Ltd., as well as a company owned by his longtime business manager and co-defendant, Derrel McDavid.
The new allegations are the latest in a string of legal woes for the onetime R&B superstar, who is facing charges in four jurisdictions related to the sexual abuse of girls and young women going back decades.
Kelly’s lead attorney Steven Greenberg acknowledged the new indictment on Twitter, writing “We continue to fight for him and look forward to the day he is free.”
Kelly could be arraigned on the new charges at his next scheduled hearing in the case on March 5.
Kelly, 53, was originally charged in a 13-count federal indictment last July with conspiring with two former employees to rig his 2008 child pornography trial in Cook County by paying off witnesses and victims to change their stories.
The indictment also alleged Kelly, former manager McDavid and onetime employee Milton “June” Brown paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to recover child sex tapes before they fell into the hands of prosecutors.
U.S. District Judge Harry Leinenweber had set a trial date on those charges for April 27 but it’s likely that will be delayed given the new indictment announced Friday.
The additional charges allege that Kelly met Minor 6 circa 1997, when she was about 14 or 15. He sexually abused her until about December 2000, the charges allege.
While Minor 2 is no longer listed as a victim in the new charges, the superseding indictment identifies the same person as Individual D – indicating that she may still be cooperating with authorities.
Kelly allegedly paid Individual D hundreds of thousands of dollars to return videotapes that showed Kelly having sexual contact with her and another underage girl.
That accusation is just part of what prosecutors have painted as a wide-ranging scheme to cover up Kelly’s sexual abuse of underage girls, including repeated bribes to victims and witnesses as well as coordinated effort to conceal video evidence of the abuse.
Kelly, whose full name is Robert Sylvester Kelly, faces a separate racketeering conspiracy indictment in U.S. District Court in New York alleging he identified underage girls attending his concerts and groomed them for later sexual abuse.
The singer is also charged in four separate indictments in Cook County alleging he sexually assaulted or abused four women, three of whom were underage at the time. Additional charges are also pending in Minnesota, alleging Kelly solicited a teenager who asked for his autograph in 2001.
Kelly has pleaded not guilty to all charges. He’s been held without bond at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Chicago since his July 2019 arrest.
jmeisner@chicagotribune.com
mcrepeau@chicagotribune.com
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