CHICAGO _ Jailed R&B star R. Kelly's two recent live-in girlfriends brawled at his Trump Tower condominium on Wednesday afternoon, sending one to the hospital while the other was charged with domestic battery.
Joycelyn Savage, 24, was taken into custody after allegedly punching a 22-year-old woman in the face, according to police. Savage was charged overnight with misdemeanor domestic battery at Chicago's 18th District station.
"I have nothing for you," said the 22-year-old calmly, before hanging up the phone when reached by a Tribune reporter about 8:45 p.m.
The tussle was all purportedly captured on video, which displayed the inside of Kelly's condominium, where an apparent Grammy could be seen, as well as balloons and a Welcome Home sign.
The incident began shortly after 2 p.m. when Chicago police were called to the Trump Tower building, in the 400 block of North Wabash Avenue, for a "battery in progress" involving two women, according to Chicago police Officer Anthony Spicuzza.
When officers got there, they spoke with a 22-year-old woman who told them she and Savage were embroiled in an argument that became physical when the older woman hit the other one in the face.
The two continued fighting until they were "separated by unknown individuals" at the scene, according to Officer Jessica Alvarez, a police spokeswoman.
Savage "fled" and was not in custody earlier, while the younger was taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital, where she was listed in good condition, Spicuzza said.
"It was a battery; it was a fight, but I don't know what condition she's in," said Chicago Fire Department spokesman Larry Merritt, who added the injuries were not serious enough to threaten her life.
"She was taken by BLS ambulance, which means basic life support, which would indicate not serious to critical. With BLS, the person is not in jeopardy of passing," Merritt said.
If someone was badly hurt, they would go in an ALS, or advanced life support, ambulance, Merritt added.
Savage, whose home address is listed in the same block as Trump Tower, later turned herself in to police and was arrested on signed complaints, police said. Her next court date was scheduled for Feb. 6 at the county's domestic violence courthouse.
The 22-year-old woman's name came up last month in Brooklyn, N.Y., when prosecutors there asked for any Cook County marriage records, records show. The 22-year-old had until recently lived with Kelly at the Trump Tower address.
The case involved a new indictment brought in New York that alleged Kelly bribed an Illinois official to get a fake ID for 15-year-old singer Aaliyah a day before he married her in 1994.
Kelly is in federal custody awaiting trial on the New York charges as well as a separate indictment brought by federal prosecutors in Chicago alleging the singer conspired with two former employees to rig his 2008 child pornography trial in Cook County by paying off witnesses and victims to change their stories.
In addition, Kelly, who turned 53 on Wednesday, was charged in Cook County criminal court in February with four separate indictments accusing him of sexual misconduct over more than a decade. Three of those alleged victims were underage at the time.
If convicted in all jurisdictions, the embattled singer, whose full name is Robert Sylvester Kelly, could face the rest of his life in prison.
