R. Kelly’s Lawyer Says Accusers Were ‘Mistakenly Coached to Become Victims’
Written by SOURCE on February 25, 2019
As R. Kelly prepares to spend another night in jail, attorney Brian Nix shed more light on his client’s current state of mind.
On Sunday, Nix told Rolling Stone that the singer—whose legal name is Robert Sylvester Kelly—was “disappointed by the unsubstantiated allegations” of sexual abuse involving minors. Nix also said his client believed the six-part docuseries Surviving R. Kelly turned “acquaintances” into accusers.
“Rob is disappointed by the unsubstantiated allegations of behavior that portrays him as a monster by people with a pecuniary motive,” Nix told the magazine. “He believes that the scripted documentary by Lifetime has created collusion between and amongst female friends who have been converted to victims […] The dissemination of information through media and social outlets have created an environment of possible collusion amongst female acquaintances who have been mistakenly coached to become victims.”
Surviving R. Kelly premiered on Lifetime in early 2019 and reignited public outrage over singer’s history alleged sexual misconduct. Days after the docuseries’ debut, Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx urged potential victims to “please come forward.”
“We need actual witnesses and victims to have the courage to tell their stories,” she said during a press conference last month. “If they have concerns about further victimization of others, it becomes necessary to have the courage to come forward and tell what happened. We cannot do anything related to these allegations without the cooperation of these victims.”
Kelly was arrested Friday in Chicago on ten counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse. Prosecutors have accused the singer sexually abuse four women as far back as 1998. Three of these women were between the ages of 13 and 16 at the time of the alleged abuse. A Chicago judge has set his bond at $1 million; however, his legal team says Kelly is having trouble coming up with the money.
“To be frank, [Kelly’s] the biggest survivor out of all of this,” the singer’s advisor Don Russell told Rolling Stone. “This man has lost a lot of income. Based on him being dropped from the label, the concerts being canceled—now they’ve taken his passport so he can’t go abroad and generate revenue—he has no income.”
Kelly is slated to appear in court Monday.
