R Kelly Arrested And Indicted On New Sexual Assault Charges – Tha Wire

Today in Tha Wire, R. Kelly is still in custody after his arrest last week.

AllHipHop News reported the singer was taken into custody following a lengthy investigation by federal authorities. Kelly was arrested last Tuesday, July 2, 2019 in Chicago by a team of Homeland Security agents and NYPD Public Safety Task Force members. Thursday, he appeared in the Northern District of Illinois Federal Court where he was given another laundry list of charges related to sexual crimes against minors.

The LA Times reports state and federal law attorney, Lou Shapiro, working the latest indictment against the 52-year-old star said, “His life is on the line now. There are mandatory sentencing minimums in the federal arena; that’s why this is so dangerous.”

Until recently, Kelly was free on $1 million bond from state charges filed earlier this year. Yet it doesn't look he'll get the same opportunity in light of the new charges. Shapiro explained why adding, “I think he’ll be kept in. Ordinarily, he would be released, but the charges are so egregious, and he has every reason to flee.”

Some of the parents were on the scene for the latest string of indictments being brought against the star. While cameras were rolling, a father of a young woman who is believed to have been used as a sex slave confronted R. Kelly's publicist at a press conference Friday.

For now, Kelly will remain locked up at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Chicago. His bond hearing is scheduled for today (Monday, July 15, 2019) at 1:00pm. Without question, this brotha's got some major problems because he already has a separate federal indictment against him in Chicago and yet another in Brooklyn. Kelly faces five counts in Brooklyn alone. The charges include one count of racketeering and four counts for violating the Mann Act, which prohibits crossing state lines for illegal sexual purposes.

Criminal defense attorney, Lara Yeretsian, said the singer is looking at spending the rest of his life behind bars if he's convicted. She said, “He is facing up to twenty years for each racketeering count, while the Mann Act violations each have at least fifteen to twenty-one months for each count. This doesn’t even include the decades he is facing in Chicago.”

Kelly is charged with multiple sex-related crimes in his hometown where prosecutors allege he sexually assaulted one woman and three teenage girls. He's being charged with everything from aggravated criminal sexual abuse to aggravated criminal sexual abuse against a victim between the ages of thirteen to sixteen in that case. He pleaded not guilty to all charges.