New York City prosecutors have laid new bribery charges on repeatedly accused sexual offender, R. Kelly.
As reported by Billboard, the charges appear to be related to Kelly’s 1994 marriage to teenager, Aaliyah D. Haughton.
An indictment revised in Brooklyn’s federal court accuses R. Kelly of working with others to pay for and source a “fraudulent identification document” back on the 30th August 1994. According to The New York Times, federal prosecutors in Brooklyn accused Kelly of bribing an Illinois government employee so as to obtain a fake ID. The document was for someone who has only been identified as ‘Jane Doe’ at this stage.
A day after obtaining the ID, it is alleged, R. Kelly, who was aged 27 at the time, married 15-year-old RnB artist, Aaliyah D. Haughton. He married her in a secret ceremony that he arranged in a hotel in Chicago. The marriage was annulled months later. Aaliyah died in 2001 in a plane crash. She was just 22.
R.Kelly’s attorney, Douglas Anton called the most recent charge against his client, laid on Thursday, “ridiculous and absurd”.
The former RnB artist had already been charged by Brooklyn prosecutors with racketeering, kidnapping, forced labor, and sexual exploitation. Prosecutors alleged he, along with employees and assistants, chose women and girls at concerts before grooming them for sexual abuse.
Kelly is being held without bond and is scheduled to stand trial in federal court in Chicago in April. He’ll face child pornography and obstruction of justice charges before he faces another trial in Brooklyn.
