R. Kelly Spends Second Night in Jail After Failing to Come Up With Bond Money
Written by SOURCE on February 24, 2019
R. Kelly failed to come up with the $100,000 bail needed to secure his freedom before the trial, forcing the alleged abuser to spend a second night in jail, according to his lawyer.
On Friday evening, Kelly turned himself into police after he had been charged with 10 counts of felony criminal sexual abuse against four women, three of which were minors. When Kelly arrived at the Leighton Criminal Court building the next day, Judge John Fitzgerald Lyke Jr. called the allegations against the singer “disturbing” and set his bond to $1 million—$250,000 for each of the four indictments.
Kelly’s attorney, Steve Greenberg, said that the singer’s finances were “a mess.” However, he claimed that the defendant will likely have the funds needed to post bail by Sunday, a day before his next scheduled court appearance. “We are very happy with the bond that was set,” Greenberg said. “Right now he is presumed innocent.”
After Kelly’s bail hearing on Saturday, Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx stated that prosecutors have DNA evidence in one of the cases the singer was indicted for. Should Kelly be able to deliver the bail, he is not permitted to have any contact with any of the alleged victims, and he must turn in his passport.
Jason Meisner, a Chicago Tribune reporter, described the four indictments on Twitter. “He solicited a girl outside criminal trial and later sexually abused her; abused a girl he’d met at her 16th birthday party; forced oral sex on his hairdresser; and videotaped himself having sex with a young girl at his home,” the journalist wrote.
Greenberg’s defense tactics have been problematic to say the least. During a press conference after the singer’s bail had been set, the attorney attempted to discredit the women who have lodged allegations against Kelly. “I think all the women are lying, yes,” Greenberg said. “This has become, ‘Hey, R Kelly — I can say R Kelly did something’ — boom. There was a press conference yesterday, ‘Oh, these two girls were assaulted by R Kelly!’ And the lawyer stood there with a picture of LL Cool J.”
