Cook County prosecutors will take R. Kelly to trial on charges related to the singer’s alleged assault of a hairdresser who claims the singer forced her to commit a sex act during a 2003 appointment.
The victim, identified in court records as “L.C.”, came forward publicly in March, identifying herself as Lanita Carter, and claiming she was 24 at the time of the assault. In interviews, Carter has said she went to police immediately after the 2003 assault but no charges were brought against the singer.
Kelly did not appear in court for Wednesday’s hearing. His attorney, Steve Greenberg, said the singer, who is being held at the federal Metropolitan Correctional Center downtown, had a medical procedure and was not able to make the trip to court. Talking to reporters after the hearing, Greenberg would not elaborate on Kelly’s condition, other than to say the singer was recuperating and was expected to be fine.
The defense attorney downplayed the case against his client, noting that prosecutors declined to bring charges against the singer when the alleged victim first reported the incident.
“[The case] hasn’t gotten any better. It’s not like wine, it doesn’t get better with age,” Greenberg said.
Greenberg said he had seen some of L.C.’s interviews with various media outlets, and would review those public statements with what she has told police and prosecutors.
“There’s a reason why they didn’t bring this case many years ago and there’s problems with the case, and there’s good things and there’s bad things,” Greenberg said. “All these people come with baggage and we’ll let the jury know about that baggage.”
The charges involving “L.C.” were filed alongside cases involving three other victims in February 2019. Of the four cases, Carter is the only victim who was older than 16 at the time of the alleged assault.
At Kelly’s bond hearing last year, prosecutors said that L.C. had gone to Kelly’s Near North Side home in February 2003 for a hair appointment, and Kelly greeted her with his pants pulled down and said that he didn’t want his hair braided but wanted his “head massaged.”
Kelly allegedly ejaculated on the victim and spit in her face several times, and the victim turned over a stained shirt to investigators that had DNA from Kelly’s semen on it.
Judge Lawrence Flood had previously set a trial date for September. Kelly also faces charges in federal court in Chicago and New York, where he has trials set for this spring, as well as a state case in Minnesota.
