R Kelly Indicted On 10 Counts

• R&B singer R. Kelly turned himself in to Chicago police on Friday evening, hours after he was charged with 10 counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse, according to an indictment filed in Cook County, IL. The Chicago Sun-Times reports that Judge John Lyke Jr. set Kelly’s bond at $1 million — $250,000 for each of the four cases of criminal sexual abuse leveled against him. Kelly’s booking photo is from the Cook County sheriff’s office.

According to The Associated Press, the charges were announced by Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx during a Friday news conference. The charging documents state that the crimes occurred between 1998 and 2010 and involved four victims, three of whom were between 13 and 16 years old at the time. Each count carries a sentence of three to seven years. Kelly’s next court appearance is scheduled for Monday.

Kelly has come under increasingly intense scrutiny since Lifetime aired a widely watched docu-series, Surviving R. Kelly that took a sweeping look at years of sexual misconduct allegations against the singer. Shortly after the Lifetime series aired, Foxx made a public plea requesting that potential witnesses or victims related to claims against Kelly come forward, and Kelly was dropped by his label, RCA Records. Musicians who had collaborated with him in the past, including Lady Gaga and Chance the Rapper, have apologized for working with him.

Kelly, who has long denied wrongdoing, was tried in 2008 on several counts of child pornography and was acquitted. Last Thursday, during a news conference with attorney Gloria Allred, two women accused Kelly of sexual misconduct. Allred wrote in a statement that “the wheels of justice are turning.” She said, “The days of running and hiding his victimization of women from the criminal justice system have now come to an end for R. Kelly.”

Last week, attorney Michael Avenatti announced he had turned over to Foxx’s office a VHS tape that allegedly shows Kelly engaging in sexual activity with a girl who is reportedly 14 years old. As The Associated Press reports, during a Friday afternoon news conference, Avenatti said the video shows two separate scenes on two separate days at Kelly’s residence during the late ’90s. Avenatti says during the video both the victim and Kelly reference her age 10 times. Avenatti says he represents six clients, including two victims, two parents and two people who he describes as “knowing R. Kelly and being within his inner circle for the better part of 25 years.” Avenatti said he believes more than 10 people associated with Kelly should be criminally charged as “enablers” to his alleged sexual abuse of underage girls. The depicted acts were within Illinois’s statute of limitations, according to Avenatti, who tweeted Friday that “the day of reckoning for R Kelly has arrived.”