R Kelly can be described as a lucky man a second time after he was relieved of prison time by an unknown person who paid his child support debt of $161,000 on Saturday while he was locked up at the Cook County jail.
He’s been held in detention since Wednesday for failing to pay the child support debt until an unidentified person paid the full amount, confirms Sophia Ansari, a spokeswoman for the Cook County Sheriff’s Department.
She said the money was posted sometime Saturday morning and she did not immediately know who posted the money, reports HuffPost.
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The R&B star was arrested hours after his emotional interview with Gayle King aired on CBS This Morning following another detention after he turned himself in on February 22 and was indicted on 10 counts of aggravated sexual abuse against four women.
He was “too broke” to pay 10% of the total bond of $1 million, $250,000 for each of the alleged victims. He was only released after a 47-year-old friend from the Chicago suburb of Romeoville, Illinois, posted his $100,000 bail.
“So many people have been stealing my money, people who are connected to my account, so I went to the Bank of America for the first time by myself about three weeks ago. I was so tired of not knowing where my money is, what my publishing is,” he told Gayle King in the interview before his arrest.
“How can I pay child support if my ex-wife is destroying my name and I can’t work? How can I work? How can I get paid?” he said while sobbing.
R Kelly, who is also reported to owe a Georgia property management company more than $31,000 in past due rent payments for two homes in Atlanta, whill appear in court on March 13.
In the interview with Gayle King, R Kelly again denied abusing the women who accused him of sexual assault and featured on Lifetime’s three-night documentary series, “Surviving R. Kelly”, which aired in January.
“I’m very tired of all of the lies. I’ve been hearing things and seeing things on the blogs, you know, I’m just tired,” he said in the middle of a breakdown.
“That little girl was trapped in the basement. Helicopters all over my house. Trying to rescue someone that doesn’t need rescuing because they’re not in my house… Handcuffing people. Starving people. I have a harem… a cult. I don’t really know what a cult is, but I know I don’t have one.
“Why would I? How stupid would it be for R. Kelly, with all I’ve been through in my way, way past, to hold somebody, let alone four, five, six, 50 you said, how stupid would I be to do that? That’s stupid, guys!… That’s stupid! Use your common sense,” he said.
The incidents, in which three of the alleged victims were minors, took place between 1998 and 2010. The victims were identified only by their initials in a press conference and legal documents, Variety reported.
The indictment came days after a sex tape reportedly surfaced featuring Kelly engaging in sexual acts with an underage girl, according to CNN. TMZ reported that a grand jury was convened in the case in Cook County, Illinois, earlier this week and that two women had testified.
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.
In recent times, two women came forward at a press conference, accusing the singer of misconduct when they were 16 and 15 years old respectively.
If convicted, Kelly faces three to seven years in prison for each count.
