The 'I Believe I Can Fly' hitmaker vehemently denies any wrongdoing as he is slapped with new sex trafficking charges in New York amid ongoing legal woes.
- May 2, 2020
AceShowbiz - R. Kelly has pleaded not guilty to a string of new sex trafficking charges in New York.
The "I Believe I Can Fly" singer, who is currently behind bars at the Metropolitan Correctional Center (MCC) in Chicago, entered his plea on Thursday, April 30, 2020 via online communication from a federal jail.
The new indictment adds several allegations of abuse from a victim referred to only as Jane Doe 5, including knowingly spreading the herpes virus to two people.
If convicted, two of the new counts carry minimum sentences of 10 years, prosecutors have said.
Kelly, who has been held in Chicago on federal charges since last year 2019, has also been charged with racketeering conspiracy in the U.S. District Court in New York. He is accused of grooming underage girls attending his concerts for sexual abuse.
Meanwhile, in Chicago, a federal indictment has seen the "Ignition" star charged with conspiring with his longtime manager Derrell McDavid and a former employee to rig his 2008 child pornography trial. McDavid has denied the charge.
He also faces additional charges in Minnesota, which claim he solicited a teenager who asked for his autograph in 2001 for sex, as well as allegations he bribed an Illinois official to obtain a fake identification for the singer Aaliyah so they could get married. She was 15 at the time.
Kelly has denied all allegations.
