CHICAGO—R. Kelly spent much of Wednesday in court, with his lawyer explaining to one judge that the singer didn’t respond to a lawsuit brought by one of his sexual abuse accusers because he is illiterate and with Kelly paying $62,000 in back child support during a second hearing.
At the first hearing, Judge Moira Johnson vacated a default judgment she made against Kelly after the singer failed to respond to a lawsuit brought by one of the four women he’s charged with sexually abusing. Johnson reinstated the lawsuit after one of Kelly’s attorneys explained that the singer was in jail when he was served with the lawsuit documents and that Kelly didn’t respond because he can’t read.
The second hearing, which pertained to child support, came weeks after the judge in that case ordered Kelly to jail after finding him in contempt of court for failing to pay $161,000 in back child support to his ex-wife, who is the mother of his three children. Kelly remained locked up for three days until he raised the back child support.
“He’s not a deadbeat dad,” Kelly’s attorney Lisa Damico told reporters after Wednesday’s hearing, the Chicago Sun-Times reported. “All he wants to do is do right by his kids.”
Kelly’s bookings for performances began drying up following the airing of a television documentary “Surviving R. Kelly.” That was weeks before his February arrest on charges accusing him of sexually abusing a woman and three girls over roughly a 10-year period starting in the late 1990s. But on Tuesday, one his attorneys told reporters that he was lining up performances for the Grammy award-winning R&B singer in Illinois and outside the state, and that he anticipated the judge approving requests to travel to make those appearances.
Kelly has pleaded not guilty to the sexual abuse charges and denied any wrongdoing.
Pictured: R. Kelly in Mugshot After Surrendering to Police on Sexual Abuse Charges
Singer R. Kelly surrendered to the Chicago Police Department on Feb. 22 on charges of sexual abuse and his mugshot was later released.
Kelly, 52, whose real name is Robert Kelly, was photographed leaving his Chicago studio and traveling to the police department’s 1st District police headquarters on Feb. 22, turning himself in and getting handcuffed.
A Chicago police spokesman said that Kelly was fingerprinted, photographed, and processed and was set to remain in police custody overnight.
On Saturday morning, Kelly was due to take a prisoner transport to court where custody would be transferred to the Cook County Sheriff’s Office.
Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx told reporters earlier in the day that Kelly was charged with a combined 10 counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse.
The alleged misconduct took place between 1998 and 2010, she said. Of the four alleged victims, three were underage at the time.
The four indictments (pdf) against Kelly were published in full and contain graphic sexual language describing the alleged sexual assaults.
Kelly didn’t issue a statement but his attorney, Steve Greenberg, told reporters that all four women are lying.
“Unfortunately the state’s attorney has now succumbed to public pressure,” Greenberg said, reported the Chicago Sun-Times. “Mr. Kelly is strong, he’s got a lot of support and he’s going to be vindicated on all these charges.”
Each count against Kelly could result in as many as 7 years in prison or as little as probation if he is convicted.
The Epoch Times reporter Zachary Stieber contributed to this report.
