R. Kelly has just been indicted with 10 counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse involving four victims, with at least three of them minors, the Chicago Sun Timesis reporting off of newly-released court records. A Cook County judge, the jurisdiction Chicago is in, approved a no-bail arrest warrant for Kelly this morning, according to the records multiple outlets reviewed.
The Chicago Tribune offered some further detail. The incidents that led to the counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse occurred between 1998 and 2010. The minors indicted in them were aged 13 to 16 at the time of the alleged sexual misconduct.
The development comes after Lifetime’s six-part docu-series Surviving R. Kelly aired, where testimonies from the singer’s alleged victims were featured. Shortly after the series began airing in January, it was reported that R. Kelly could face criminal investigations in both Chicago and Atlanta. It’s the Chicago investigation that led to four separate indictments today.
According to The Guardian, Chicago prosecutor Kimberly Cook issued a call for victims to share their stories in January. “There’s nothing that can be done to investigate these allegations without the cooperation of both victims and witnesses,” Cook said, perthe outlet. “We cannot seek justice without you.”
The Chicago Tribune did note that Kelly has been charged with a sex crime in Cook County before by prosecutors in 2008. But following its trial, the Tribune wrote, “a jury acquitted him of charges alleging he filmed himself having sex with his goddaughter, a girl estimated to have been as young as 13.”
