R. Kelly on Monday appeared in court on sexual abuse charges involving four victims, three of them minors. His attorney entered a plea of not guilty on Kelly’s behalf.
Kelly was largely silent during the 10-minute hearing, speaking his name when asked by a Cook County judge and saying something inaudible as defense attorney Steve Greenberg said the singer would plead not guilty to all 10 counts against him. Kelly’s next court date was set for March 22.
The R&B singer entered court wearing an orange jail jumpsuit, escorted by four sheriff’s officers. Kelly has remained in custody since surrendering to Chicago police Friday night; he has been unable to pay the $100,000 he would need to post $1 million bond set at his first court appearance on Saturday.
At the request of Greenberg, Judge Lawrence Flood on Monday clarified that Kelly will have to post only $100,000 — 10 percent of his $1 million bail for the four sex abuse cases — to be released; he will not have to pay the more than $160,000 he has been ordered to pay in a separate child support case. Greenberg did not say in court whether Kelly yet had raised the $100,000.
Greenberg has said the singer’s finances are “a mess,” noting that Kelly has been dropped by his record label and has no tour dates.
Kelly was charged Friday in four separate cases of sexual abuse, involving four different victims in incidents from 1998 to 2010. Three of the alleged victims were between the ages of 14 and 16 at the time the abuse occurred.
Lawyer Michael Avenatti attended Monday’s hearing with several of his clients, who including a woman who said she had sex with Kelly when she was 16, and a couple who claims their daughter is being kept captive by the singer.
Avenatti told reporters he had turned over a newly discovered tape to prosecutors Monday, showing Kelly in a sexual encounter with an underage girl, filmed around 1999 or 2000. Avenatti earlier this month gave State’s Attorney Kim Foxx’s office a tape of Kelly having sex with a 14-year-old girl, which Avenatti said formed the basis of one of the four charges filed against the singer Friday.
The tapes expose “a decades-long system of abuse by Mr. Kelly of underage girls and conduct that is criminal,” Avenatti said.
READ MORE The R. Kelly investigation
