Federal prosecutors said Thursday that investigators recently executed a search warrant in the R. Kelly case in which they covered more than 100 electronic devices, including cell phones and hard drives.
Prosecutors also announced that they plan on filing another superseding indictment against the singer, which will add yet another alleged victim in the Chicago case.
The new details in the case came as Kelly pleaded not guilty Thursday to a revised set of criminal charges in a federal courtroom in Chicago that were filed last month.
His co-defendants, Derrel McDavid and Milton Brown, also pleaded not guilty before U.S. District Judge Harry Leinenweber.
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The judge set a trial date for Oct. 13.
Last month, federal prosecutors in Chicago added a new victim to the case through a superseding indictment. They also removed a person from their earlier list of victims. The feds offered little detail about the new alleged victim, saying the person met Kelly in 1997 or 1998 at the age of 14 or 15.
The indictment said Kelly “engaged in sexual contact and sexual acts” with that person and four others when they were under the age of 18. The alleged sexual activity with the new victim took place between 1997 and 2000.
However, it no longer makes such a claim about a sixth person who still remains central to the obstruction of justice charge against Kelly.
Previously identified in the old indictment as “Minor 2,” that person is now identified as “Individual D.” The facts in the new and old indictment appear to match previous testimony of Lisa Van Allen, who has spoken publicly about her relationship with Kelly and became a key, if problematic, witness during Kelly’s 2008 child pornography trial.
Since last summer, Kelly has been facing federal indictments in Chicago and Brooklyn, in addition to earlier local charges in Cook County and more recent charges in Minnesota. The federal case in Chicago alleges child pornography and obstruction of justice, while the feds in Brooklyn have alleged racketeering.
At the heart of the obstruction of justice charge Kelly faces in Chicago is the 2008 child pornography trial that ended in Kelly’s acquittal. The new indictment alleges that, in early 2007, Kelly and manager McDavid agreed to pay “Individual D” $250,000 to return a videotape of Kelly having sex with that person and a minor.
It alleges Kelly and McDavid paid “Individual D” and another person $100,000 each to help recover such videotapes, and it says they made “Individual D” and others take lie-detector tests regarding whether they had returned all the copies.
Van Allen testified in 2008 that she met Kelly when she was 17 and had sex with Kelly and an underage girl central to that trial. She said that, in March 2007, Kelly flew her and her fiancé to Chicago and offered her $250,000 for a videotape of the three having sex.
Jurors later said Van Allen, who stole a $20,000 watch from Kelly, was a poor witness. One juror said the jury discounted everything she said, while others said they considered her testimony only when others corroborated it.
