NEW YORK _ R&B superstar R. Kelly had an unsettling request for his underage sexual partners: Call me "Daddy."
The detail was included Friday in a sweeping new federal indictment in Brooklyn that accuses the singer and his underlings of coercing and grooming women to sleep with the 52-year-old Grammy winner. Kelly was charged with racketeering, kidnapping, forced labor and sexual exploitation of a child.
The 18-page superseding indictment accused Kelly of sexual activity with three girls under the age of 18, hiding the fact that he had a sexually-transmitted disease from his sexual partners and producing child pornography.
Kelly was quietly taken into custody in Chicago while smoking a cigarette and walking his dog Thursday night near his Trump Tower apartment, sources indicated. Homeland Security investigators were still searching his residence early Friday morning, seizing computers and other electronics, sources told the New York Daily News.
"This indictment makes clear that fame and power will not shield anyone from prosecutions, particularly predators who victimize vulnerable members of our community for their own sexual gratification," said Brooklyn U.S. Attorney Richard Donoghue.
The indictment specifically identified Kelly as "the leader of the enterprise" where the women were often targeted from the audience at the singer's concerts and then recruited as sexual partners.
"They were groomed and identified by R. Kelly," said Angel Melendez, special agent in charge of Homeland Security investigations in New York.
A new indictment in Chicago also alleged that Kelly and two of his ex-employees paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to recover lost videotapes of the singer engaged in sex with five minor girls. Kelly reportedly noticed the recordings were missing from his "collection" of tapes, according to the new allegation.
The Brooklyn indictment included disturbing details of Kelly's behavior, including his insistence that the targeted women remain isolated inside their rooms when not with him, never look at other men, wear baggy clothes in public and refer to him as "Daddy."
The investigation was sparked by a Homeland Security investigator and a federal prosecutor watching accusers detail Kelly's alleged abuse in the recent documentary "Surviving R. Kelly" on the Lifetime Network, sources added. The pair realized Kelly had potentially committed more crimes than already charged, and opened an investigation, Melendez confirmed.
"That's what really put the situation in the spotlight," said the Homeland Security official. "We are able to find out through the investigation that he did carry out his activities here in New York as well."
Defense attorney Nicole Blank Becker said Kelly hopes to be released on bail following a hearing next week. Kelly was aware of the investigations so the arrest "wasn't a surprise to Robert," she told the News.
"The most I can really say is both Robert and his lawyers are looking forward to our day in court, for the all truth coming out and a vindication from this unprecedented attack on Robert Kelly," Becker said.
The chart-topping singer of "I Believe I Can Fly" and "Bump N'Grind" was arrested earlier this year on charges related to four women, including three minors.
The Brooklyn court filing mentioned five unidentified "Jane Doe" victims, including three identified as minors.
In 2008, Kelly was acquitted of similar allegations sparked by a videotape that allegedly showed the entertainer engaging in sex with a minor.
