R. Kelly was arrested yesterday after being charged with 10 counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse in Cook County, Illinois. The alleged abuse dates back as far as 1998 and spans over a decade, with three of the four victims ranging in age from 13 to 17 years old. The 52-year-old singer was taken into custody after surrendering to Chicago police last night.
During a hearing at a Chicago court today, the Associated Press reports, Cook County Judge John Fitzgerald Lyke Jr. -- the same judge who presided over Empire actor Jussie Smollett's bond hearing earlier this week -- set Kelly's bond at $1 million, $250,000 for each of the four girls he's charged with sexually abusing.
At the hearing, a prosecutor told the judge that Kelly met one of the four victims during his 2008 trial for child pornography, which stemmed from a video that allegedly showed Kelly having sex with and urinating on an underage girl. The prosecutor says they met when he gave her an autograph; she was underage at the time, and he sexually abused her between 2009 and 2010.
UPDATE: Kelly's attorney Steve Greenberg says his client "really doesn't have any money at this point" and is likely to remain in jail for several days.
UPDATE 2: Kelly was freed on bail Monday (2/25) evening.
R Kelly leaves Cook County Jail pic.twitter.com/YWY9yY8JqV
— Megan Crepeau (@crepeau) February 25, 2019
