R. Kelly arrested on child pornography and other federal charges

Rick Rojas and Mihir Zaveri

July 12, 2019 1:10 PM

Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn on Friday were expected to unveil a separate indictment containing additional charges against Kelly, according to two law enforcement officials.

R. Kelly arrested on child pornography and other federal charges

Singer R. Kelly, already under indictment in Chicago on state charges of aggravated sexual assault and abuse, was arrested Thursday night by federal agents on charges related to child pornography and other federal crimes, officials said.

Kelly was taken into custody over a 13-count indictment that includes enticement of a minor and obstruction of justice, in addition to the child pornography charges, said Joseph Fitzpatrick, an assistant U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Illinois. Kelly was arrested in Chicago.

Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn on Friday were expected to unveil a separate indictment containing additional charges against Kelly, according to two law enforcement officials.

Kelly was scheduled to be arraigned Friday in federal court in Chicago. Both officials said that he would ultimately be brought to New York but that the timing had not been determined.

The federal charges deepen the legal morass for Kelly, who has been dogged by allegations of sexual misconduct for decades but was acquitted on state child pornography charges in 2008.

Kelly, 52, whose real name is Robert Kelly, already faces more than a dozen state felony charges related to sexual abuse accusations in Chicago involving four women, three of whom were underage at the time, prosecutors said.

He was charged with 10 state counts in February, with more state charges filed against him in May. He has pleaded not guilty to those charges.

His lawyer declined to comment Thursday night on the federal charges.

Suspicion has loomed over Kelly since his brief marriage, in 1994, to singer Aaliyah when she was 15. He was tried in 2008 on child pornography charges stemming from a tape in which, according to prosecutors, he had sex with and urinated on a teenage girl. He was acquitted after the girl declined to testify against him.

Yet, even as the allegations trailed him, his career continued to flourish. He performed at the World Cup in the summer of 2010 and released an album in December of that year called “Love Letter.”

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

Rick Rojas and Mihir Zaveri