Disgraced R&B musician R. Kelly was arrested in Chicago on Thursday by Homeland Security Investigations agents and the NYPD Public Safety Task Force on federal sex charges.
According to the Associated Press, U.S. Attorney’s Office spokesman Joseph Fitzpatrick confirmed the singer, who is being held at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Chicago was handed a 13-count indictment in a federal court for the Northern District of Illinois on Thursday.
“The counts include child porn, enticement of a minor and obstruction of justice,” Fitzpatrick said.
With different federal indictments in Illinois and New York, Kelly is set to appear before a Chicago court on Friday and most likely transferred to New York where he will face other charges, NBC New York reports.
Kelly’s crisis manager, Darrell Johnson told NBC New York the singer is innocent of all the charges laid against him though they were expecting the indictment.
“Mr. Kelly has declared his innocence from day one,” Johnson said. “I’ve seen nothing, and I do mean nothing, that would lead to any type of guilt.”
This is the second time the 52-year-old has been arrested this year on sex-related offences. In February, he turned himself in to a Chicago police station hours after being charged with 10 counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse, CNN reported.
The incidents, in which three of the alleged victims were minors, took place between 1998 and 2010.
Kelly has faced several accusations of abuse, manipulation and inappropriate encounters with young girls and women for more than two decades, but he has never been convicted.
Early this year, he received unabated backlash after the release of Lifetime’s “Surviving R. Kelly” docu-series, which revealed years of allegations of sexual misconduct against him. Scores of people criticized the musician and hoped that the alleged victims would get justice.
Meanwhile, R. Kelly has strongly denied any allegations of abuse or misconduct. His attorney, Steve Greenberg, after his first arrest said Cook County State’s Attorney, Kim Foxx, succumbed to public pressure and that his client is an innocent man.
“I think all the women are lying,” Greenberg said.
