What New Charges Have Been Brought Against R. Kelly?
Thanks in part to the response from the Lifetime documentary Surviving R. Kelly, R. Kelly already has pending trials in at least three states for a variety of sex crime charges. R. Kelly now faces new charges for sex trafficking, as well as women claiming he knowingly infected them with an incurable STD.
R. Kelly faces additional charges and allegations
The Blast reported that prosecutors were provided evidence of R. Kelly transporting a minor across state lines, which led to the sex trafficking charges. The source allegedly gave the prosecution copies of the minor’s plane tickets. They also claimed that R. Kelly would allegedly fly girls to different states where he was performing.
There were also claims that R. Kelly exposed his alleged victims to sexually transmitted diseases, specifically herpes. The alleged victim’s name was kept confidential, as documents stated that she was a minor at the time of infection.
She claimed R. Kelly never told her he had herpes during their relationship. Another woman, whose name is also confidential, said she too was exposed to the sexually transmitted virus after she was intimate with the singer.
The herpes allegations are not new to those familiar with R. Kelly’s legal issues. A former girlfriend, Faith Rodgers, who dated the singer for about a year, spoke out publically after she discovered she contracted the herpes virus. She sued R. Kelly under the belief that he knowingly infected her and did not disclose his status. Rodgers was 19 years old when she began dating R. Kelly. Her charges were dropped in her hometown of Dallas in August 2019. But with the help of her lawyer, she sued again in the state of New York.
R. Kelly has also been hit with racketeering charges. Documents reveal that he’s being accused of using “force, threats of force, physical restraint and threats of physical restraint.”
Many believe the new accuser is R. Kelly’s ex-girlfriend Azriel Clary
After a five-year relationship with Kelly and once standing behind him, Clary changed her tune after leaving the Chicago condo she shared with Kelly in December 2019. She later told The Sun that she was a victim of Kelly’s physical, emotional, and sexual abuse and manipulation.
Clary famously filmed her fallout with Kelly’s other live-in girlfriend, Joycelyn Savage, in which she is heard screaming that both R. Kelly and Savage were intimate with her multiple times when Clary was a minor. TMZ later reported that Clary was working with the investigators to build the case against R. Kelly to prove that he had sexual relationships with minors and was abusive. Clary allegedly was 17 years old when she began a relationship with R. Kelly.
The now 23-year-old revealed in an upcoming documentary that R. Kelly forced her to eat her own feces while they were still together. “He has a video of me, um, he made me do this video of me doing a number 2 in a cup, and then eating it out of the cup,” she says in the clip.
Clary also told The Sun that R. Kelly forced her to engage in group sex with men and women up to five times a day, savagely beat her, and dictated her daily schedule of what she ate, wore, and with whom she communicated.
The new charges have all been filed in the Eastern District of New York. Kelly has continued to deny all allegations against him and has entered not guilty pleas.
