R. Kelly has posted bail after spending the weekend in a Chicago jail on sex abuse charges, authorities said Monday. Video at the scene showed the singer leave jail, amid a crowd of reporters, just before 5:30 p.m. local time.
Kelly, one of the best-selling music artists of all-time, was arrested late Friday on 10 counts of aggravated sexual abuse involving four victims, three of whom were minors. The allegations date back to 1998 and span more than a decade.
A judge on Saturday set bond at $1 million, requiring the Grammy Award-winning singer to pay 10 percent, or $100,000, to be released.
At a court hearing Monday, Kelly’s case was assigned to Cook County Associate Judge Lawrence Flood, who will preside over the trial. Kelly clasped his hands behind his back and was not handcuffed during the five-minute hearing. Defense attorney Steve Greenberg said Kelly would enter a plea of not guilty and waived a formal reading of charges.
Last month, Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx asked for possible alleged victims of sexual assault or domestic violence by Kelly to come forward after what she called the “deeply, deeply disturbing” allegations outlined in the docu-series “Surviving R. Kelly.”
Speaking on “CBS This Morning” Monday, filmmaker Dream Hampton, who produced the docu-series, said she didn’t expect Kelly to face charges. In a tweet Friday, Hampton said, “The survivors are heroes.”
Attorney Michael Avenatti on Monday said his legal team has turned over to prosecutors a second video that he alleges shows R&B Kelly having sex with a 14-year-old girl. Avenatti, who represents two Kelly victims, previously gave prosecutors video he said also shows Kelly having sex with an underage girl. Avenatti told CBS News this month he got the first tape from someone who knows both Kelly and the alleged victim “extremely well.” He described it as a “bombshell of epic proportions.”
Kelly has denied the charges. Speaking to reporters Monday, Greenberg maintained Kelly’s innocence and said he hasn’t seen any videos and that he believes they do not depict Kelly.
“It’s our position at this point that Mr. Kelly has done absolutely nothing wrong,” Greenberg said. “No one has shown us any evidence that he’s done anything wrong.”
Jericka Duncan and Cassandra Gauthier contributed to this report.
