R&B singer R. Kelly is photographed during booking at a police station in Chicago. He is facing 10 counts of sexual abuse charges. Photo / AP
R&B singer R. Kelly is photographed during booking at a police station in Chicago. He is facing 10 counts of sexual abuse charges. Photo / AP
R. Kelly's attorney says the R&B singer won't get out of jail for another day or two as arrangements are made to pay a US$100,000 bond to free him while he awaits trial for aggravated sexual abuse.
Steve Greenberg told The Associated Press on Sunday that Kelly is capable ofpaying and should be released in a day or two. But he said others have to act for him and the coordination is complicated because Kelly is behind bars.
Charges were announced Friday. The 52-year-old Kelly faces 10 sexual abuse counts involving four victims, three of whom were minors. Through Greenberg, he denied the allegations.
A bond court judge Saturday set bond at US$1 million, requiring Kelly to pay 10 per cent of that to go free. Greenberg told the judge that Kelly isn't wealthy despite decades of success creating hit songs. Greenberg said later he was happy with the bail amount.
The Cook County Sheriff's Office website Sunday says Kelly — one of the best-selling music artists of all time — is still in its 7,000-inmate complex in Chicago.
The judge Saturday described the allegations against Kelly as "disturbing" but offered him freedom for US$100,000. It can be paid by credit card, cash or check.
Defense lawyer Steve Greenberg told the judge that Kelly's finances are "a mess."
While on trial for child pornography in 2008, R. Kelly still found time to talk to fans, give autographs and to meet an underage girl he later invited to his home.
That's according to prosecutors who at a court hearing Saturday depicted the R&B star as manipulative and sometimes violent.
Other accusers included a girl who met Kelly at her 16th birthday party and a hairdresser who expected to braid the singer's hair only to find that he wanted oral sex instead.
The accounts emerged as Kelly made his first court appearance since being accused of sexually abusing four people. The case could produce another #MeToo reckoning for a celebrity.
