R. Kelly Will Be Flown to New York to Face Federal Charges

R. Kelly will be flown to New York to face felony charges, according to the Chicago Tribune. The singer will be transported from the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Chicago ahead of an arraignment on August 2. 

For the uninitiated, Kelly is facing two separate federal cases related to his many years of alleged sexual misconduct with underaged girls. In Illinois, he recently plead not guilty to thirteen counts related to the making and procuring of child pornography. The case alleges that Kelly made videotapes of himself having sex with underage girls and then went to great lengths to recover tapes that had made it out into the wider world. 

The five-count federal case against him in New York involves allegations that he moved the underage girls in his orbit across state lines. He’s being charged in New York’s Eastern District with sexual exploitation of a child, forced labor, kidnapping and transporting women and girls to engage in illegal sexual acts. Kelly is currently being held in solitary confinement at a Chicago prison, per his attorney Steve Greenberg. An Illinois judge denied Kelly bail, claiming that he was a flight risk and a danger to the public. 

Accusations that Kelly has run an organization based around pulling in young girls into his orbit and cutting all ties to their families for the purpose of leading a sort of sex cult have followed Kelly for years. However, it wasn’t until recently when the accusations were repackaged for a Lifetime television series called Surviving R Kelly, that Kelly started to face real consequences.