Chicago – Cook County prosecutors said Wednesday they intend to take embattled R&B singer R. Kelly to trial first on their only indictment involving an accuser who was an adult at the time of the alleged attack.
The decision comes as a bit of a surprise since the other three Cook County indictments facing Kelly involve women who were underage at the time. One of those cases involves four counts of aggravated criminal sexual assault, a more serious charge than the aggravated criminal sexual abuse counts he otherwise faces.
Kelly did not appear at the brief hearing Wednesday at the Leighton Criminal Court Building due to a medical issue, his attorney, Steven Greenberg, said in court. He is being held without bond in a federal jail in downtown Chicago.
Prosecutors said they would go to trial first on a charge alleging Kelly tried to force oral sex on a woman identified in court documents only as L.C., his 24-year-old hairdresser, on Chicago’s Near North Side in 2003. He is charged with a single count of aggravated criminal sexual abuse in that case.
Lanita Carter has since come forward publicly, saying she went to braid Kelly’s hair on Chicago’s Near North Side in 2003 but that he greeted her with his pants down. When she resisted, Kelly ejaculated on her and spit in her face several times, prosecutors have alleged.
In setting the first of potentially four trials for September 14, Judge Lawrence Flood had asked prosecutors last month to reveal at Wednesday’s hearing which indictment they would proceed on first.
Carter recently appeared in the Lifetime documentary series, “Surviving R. Kelly Part II: The Reckoning,” recounting her accusations in emotional and vivid terms.
She said she had enjoyed a close, platonic relationship with Kelly, saying he was supportive and protective of her, until he surprised her at the 2003 appointment.
Carter said in the series that she reported the attack to police and ultimately appeared before a Cook County grand jury. She said grand jurors disbelieved her story and that charges were rejected.
Carter came forward again after Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx made an unusual public plea in early 2019 for Kelly’s accusers to reach out and cooperate with investigators.
Kelly faces a combined 20 counts in the four county indictments. The most serious charges involve four counts of aggravated criminal sexual assault that allege he had multiple encounters with J.P. in 2009 and 2010 when she was just 16.
The alleged victim, Jerhonda Pace, has gone public with her allegations against Kelly, describing herself as a “superfan” who met him during his child pornography trial in 2008.
The singer, 53, whose legal name is Robert Sylvester Kelly, also faces separate indictments in Cook County that charge he sexually abused three other women – two of whom were also underage at the time.
Prosecutors allege that Kelly met one underage victim, identified only as H.W. in the indictment, as she celebrated her 16th birthday at a restaurant. He had repeated sexual contact with her over the next year, according to the charges.
Prosecutors have revealed they also have a video recording of Kelly having sex with a 14-year-old girl, identified as R.L., on one occasion sometime between late September 1998 and late September 2001.
Kelly also faces separate trials in the spring on two sweeping federal indictments, one in Chicago and the other in New York.
The 13-count indictment in Chicago charged Kelly with conspiring with two former employees to rig his 2008 child pornography trial in Cook County by paying off witnesses and victims to change their stories. He was acquitted of all charges at that trial.
In New York, Kelly alone was indicted on a charge of racketeering conspiracy, alleging he identified underage girls attending his concerts and groomed them for later sexual abuse.
Kelly also faces prostitution charges in Minnesota alleging he solicited a teenage girl nearly 20 years ago.
If convicted in all jurisdictions, Kelly could face the rest of his life in prison.
Kelly has denied any misconduct.
Early last November, attorney Jeffrey Steinback, who is known for negotiating complex guilty pleas, signed on to represent Kelly on his federal charges in Chicago, raising speculation that Kelly might try to work out a deal with prosecutors on all the pending charges.
But Greenberg, Kelly’s lead attorney, has denied that any plea negotiations were in the works.
tca/dpa