CHICAGO (CBS)– Singer R. Kelly went before a judge to enter a plea following new accusations of sex abuse.
As CBS 2 Investigator Megan Hickey reported, Kelly pleaded not guilty to a new federal indictment that was unsealed last month. The indictment includes 13 counts including several of which are related to child pornography.
The reworked charges are nearly identical to the original ones, except now there’s a new accuser referred to only as Minor Six.
R. Kelly pleaded NOT GUILTY to 13 counts in federal court this morning, including several child porn charges.
The judge also changed the Grammy Award-winning artist’s trial date to October 13th.
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The indictment said this new accuser met Kelly in 1997 or 1998, when she would have been only 14 or 15 years old.
The documents go on to accuse Kelly of engaging in sexual acts with her around that time, years before she turned 18.
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Federal prosecutors say they confiscated over 100 electronic devices and will now need time to investigate the content. They were found during a search of a storage facility in the suburbs, prosecutors said.
After the hearing, Kelly’s defense team said they are not worried about what is on the computers.
“He has a storage facility where all of his equipment, stages, tour bus and so forth is being held. Obviously, there’s a lot of computers in there. The whole production is computerized,” said attorney Steve Greenberg. “We expect that they’re not going to find anything incriminating from any search warrant.”
The 53-year-old has been sitting in a jail cell at the Metropolitan Correctional Center, just a block away from the Dirksen Federal Courthouse, since last summer.
On Thursday, the judge changed Kelly’s trial date from April 27 to Oct. 13 after defense attorneys claimed that wasn’t enough time for them to prepare.
Kelly’s facing dozens of counts of state and federal sexual misconduct charges in Illinois as well as in Minnesota and New York.
Defense attorneys believe federal prosecutors plan to add another victim onto their indictment, only adding to Kelly’s long list of charges.
Federal prosecutors in Chicago have charged him with videotaping himself having sex with underage girls, and paying hush money and intimidating witnesses to cover up his crimes. That trial is scheduled for April.
County prosecutors have charged Kelly with multiple counts of sexual assault and sexual abuse against four women years ago. The first of those trials is scheduled for September.
Megan Hickey
