CHICAGO (AP) - The Latest on the sex crimes case against R&B singer R. Kelly (all times local):
4 p.m.
Celebrity attorney Gloria Allred says she is pleased that federal authorities have charged singer R. Kelly in Chicago and New York with sex crimes, and she says “justice, which is long overdue for his victims, will soon be done.”
Allred says in a statement that she represents three women for whom charges were filed and who are referenced in the New York indictment of Kelly. She says that she also represents other potential witnesses. The women are not identified.
Allred says: “This is a very positive day for those who allege that they are victims of Mr. Kelly and it is a day that I’m sure that Mr. Kelly hoped would never come.
Kelly was arrested in Chicago Thursday and appeared in court Friday to face charges that he and members of his entourage of recruited women and girls to engage in illegal sexual activity with the singer and paid them to cover up his crimes.
Allred has represented many women who have been sexually assaulted and has been a proponent of the “Me Too” movement.
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2:20 p.m.
Singer R. Kelly has appeared in Chicago court following two sweeping new federal indictments that include charges of sex crimes against minors and paying victims and witnesses to cover up his actions.
Kelly stood before U.S. Magistrate Sheila M. Finnegan on Friday afternoon dressed in an orange jumpsuit, with his hands clasped behind his back. The only words he spoke during the 15-minute hearing were “yes, ma’am” to the judge.
Prosecutors say Kelly was arrested in Chicago at 7:05 p.m. Thursday. He is being held at a federal detention center in Chicago, where he’ll remain at least until a Tuesday hearing.
Indictments from grand juries in Chicago and New York were unsealed Friday.
An attorney for the 52-year-old Grammy Award winner says Kelly denies wrongdoing. Kelly is scheduled for a bond hearing Tuesday in Chicago.
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This item has been corrected to show Kelly will remain in custody at least until Tuesday, not Monday.
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11:55 a.m.
Federal prosecutors in Chicago say R&B singer R. Kelly went to great lengths to cover up sexually explicit videos of himself with minor girls when he realized some were missing from his collection.
Prosecutors say in a federal indictment filed Friday morning that the singer and others who worked for him paid money to victims and witnesses as part of the cover up. The indictment says the payments were made to conceal evidence, including the videos, and make sure victims and witnesses didn’t cooperate with law enforcement.
Prosecutors say the payments totaled hundreds of thousands of dollars and that some victims and witnesses had to take lie-detector tests to make sure they had returned all copies of the videos.
Kelly is to appear in Chicago federal court Friday afternoon.
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11 a.m.
Singer R. Kelly is charged with paying off a victim and her family to get them to deny that a video at the center of his 2008 pornography trial depicted sex acts between Kelly and the minor girl.
The indictment unsealed in Chicago federal court Friday says Kelly and his business manager, Derrel McDavid, threatened, intimidated and pressured the girl and her parents to falsify police reports and give false testimony to a grand jury. The indictment also alleges they arranged for the girl and her parents to travel overseas prior to his 2002 indictment so they’d be unavailable to law enforcement investigating the case.
Kelly was acquitted at trial on pornography charges. His attorney denied wrongdoing again Friday.
The indictment says payments to the girl and her father continued after the trial.
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10:30 a.m.
A publicist for singer R. Kelly has delivered a statement at a chaotic news conference in Atlanta.
The news conference Friday morning was interrupted seconds after beginning, when the family of Joycelyn Savage, a woman who lived with Kelly in Chicago, confronted Kelly publicist Darrell Johnson and pleaded to speak with their daughter.
Kelly has been arrested in Chicago on a sweeping federal indictment that accuses him and members of his entourage of recruiting women and girls to engage in illegal sexual activity.
Johnson said that Kelly was currently being held in Cook County, Illinois. Kelly is scheduled to be arraigned in Chicago federal court on Tuesday afternoon.
Johnson insisted he had “nothing to do” with Joycelyn Savage and that she wasn’t being held.
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9:15 a.m.
R&B singer R. Kelly faces charges in Chicago federal court accusing him of child sex crimes, child pornography and conspiracy to defraud the U.S. government.
The 13-count indictment filed Friday morning in U.S. District Court also names Kelly’s business manager and another employee. It was released the same day federal prosecutors in New York charged Kelly with racketeering other sex-related crimes.
The Illinois federal indictment details efforts to cover up sexually explicit videos of Kelly with underage girls. Prosecutors say the defendants paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to victims and witnesses to make sure they wouldn’t cooperate with law enforcement. It also accuses Kelly of using physical abuse, violence and blackmail to prevent victims from providing evidence to law enforcement.
Kelly’s attorney has said the charges aren’t a surprise and that Kelly hopes to be released at a bail hearing next week. The singer has denied wrongdoing.
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9:45 a.m.
R&B singer R. Kelly has been charged with racketeering and sex-related crimes against women and girls in sweeping New York federal indictment.
The 18-page indictment unsealed Friday accuses Kelly and members of his entourage of recruiting women and girls to “engage in illegal sexual activity with the singer. He is the only person named in the indictment. It describes rules that Kelly had for the women, including not allowing them to eat or use the bathroom and not permitting them to look at other men and telling them to keep their heads down.
Besides racketeering the indictment includes charges of transporting for prostitution and coercion or enticement of a female.
Kelly’s attorney has said the charges aren’t a surprise and that Kelly hopes to be released at a bail hearing next week. The singer has denied wrongdoing.
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8:05 a.m.
R. Kelly’s attorney says federal agents arrested the R&B singer on charges out of Illinois and New York.
Attorney Steve Greenberg said Friday that agents were “professional and courteous” when they arrested Kelly on Thursday evening while he was walking his dog in Chicago. Kelly is being held at a downtown Chicago federal lockup. Greenberg says Kelly hopes to be released after a bail hearing early next week.
Greenberg says Kelly was aware of the federal investigations and the charges weren’t a surprise. He says the conduct Kelly has been charged with in federal court “appears to largely be the same” as what he is charged with in state court.
Kelly has denied any wrongdoing. Federal charging documents were not yet posted online as of Friday morning.
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6:45 a.m.
A publicist for R. Kelly says he plans to deliver a statement at a news conference in Atlanta about the R&B singer’s arrest and federal indictment on 13 counts, including sex crimes and obstruction of justice.
Darrell Johnson declined to comment when reached by phone early Friday, saying he’d address the latest developments at the morning news conference.
Kelly, already facing sexual abuse charges brought by Illinois prosecutors, was arrested in Chicago Thursday on a federal grand jury indictment. U.S. Attorney’s Office spokesman Joseph Fitzpatrick says Kelly was taken into custody about 7 p.m. and was being held by federal authorities.
The federal indictment was handed down earlier Thursday in federal court for the Northern District of Illinois.
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12:15 a.m.
Singer R. Kelly was arrested in Chicago Thursday after he was indicted on 13 federal counts including sex crimes, a U.S. Attorney’s office spokesman said.
Joseph Fitzpatrick said the R&B singer was taken into custody about 7 p.m. local time and was being held by federal authorities.
He was arrested after a 13-count federal indictment was handed down earlier Thursday in federal court for the Northern District of Illinois.
“The counts include child porn, enticement of a minor and obstruction of justice,” Fitzpatrick said, adding that further details would be released Friday.
The R&B singer already faces separate state sex-related charges in Illinois involving four women, three of whom were minors when the alleged abuse occurred. He pleaded not guilty to those charges and was released on bail.
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