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Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Back issues
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R. Kelly Faces New Sex Crime Charges in Minnesota

Already facing charges in Illinois and New York, singer R. Kelly’s legal troubles piled up higher Monday as Minnesota prosecutors announced two counts of engaging in prostitution and solicitation.

MINNEAPOLIS (CN) – Already facing federal charges in Illinois and New York, singer R. Kelly’s legal troubles piled up higher Monday as Minnesota prosecutors announced two counts of engaging in prostitution and solicitation.

The embattled 52-year-old R&B star, whose real name is Robert Sylvester Kelly, is accused of sexual misconduct at a Minneapolis hotel in July 2001 with a minor girl who was under 18 and over 16 years old.

According to Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman, the girl had sought an autograph from R. Kelly but was paid $200 to strip naked in his hotel room.

Freeman said no intercourse took place, but there was dancing and sexual contact.

The prosecutor noted testimonies provided by the victim and her brother were enough to bring the charges.

“Minnesota victims deserve their day in court and that’s why we’re here… this victim deserves her day in court,” he said.

Freeman said he wouldn’t be upset if the case doesn’t go to trial as long as R. Kelly does time for alleged crimes he committed elsewhere.

The singer, currently jailed in New York, is already facing five federal racketeering charges in Brooklyn and 13 counts of child pornography and obstruction of justice in Illinois, all of which he has pleaded not guilty to.

According to the New York charges, Kelly and his entourage of managers, bodyguards, drivers and assistants worked together to recruit women and girls into the singer’s ring of sexual abuse victims, one of whom also says she got a sexually transmitted disease from him.

The Illinois indictment names two members of the entourage as defendants, business manager Derrel McDavid and associate Milton “June” Brown, claiming the two men helped Kelly in his scheme to cover up video tapes of himself having sex with minor girls.

Freeman noted that the three-year statute of limitation in the Minnesota case has not expired because R. Kelly left the state shortly after the alleged incident and the statute doesn’t end until he returns. There is no indication that the singer has been in Minnesota for a duration of three years, the prosecutor said.

Rumors of Kelly sexually abusing minor girls have swirled for decades, but he was acquitted of child pornography charges in 2008.

Categories / Criminal, Entertainment

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