R. Kelly is fighting back after he lost a civil lawsuit by default earlier this week. He was expected in Cook County Circuit Court but pulled a no-show.
According to TMZ, his legal counsel says he was simply “overwhelmed” by his mounting legal issues and didn’t know how to proceed. Now, his attorney is attempting to combat the loss.
Kelly was sued by Chicago resident Heather Williams in February after she claimed he’d sexually abused her when she was only 16. The disgraced R&B singer is currently facing 10 counts of criminal sexual abuse and has pleaded not guilty.
Williams’ attorney, Jeffrey Deutschman, attempted to settle out of court, but received no response to the legal letter. Williams said she also tried serving Kelly at Trump Tower but couldn’t get through security. Finally, she was able to serve him while he was in jail for unpaid child support earlier this year.
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Kelly’s civil attorney, Brian Nix, explained, “R. Kelly was served while incarcerated on the child support case and he was overwhelmed by the experience of being in jail.”
Williams won a default judgment against Kelly when he failed to show up.
[This article has been updated. The original version was published on April 24, 2019 and can be found below.]
R. Kelly was expected at Cook County Circuit Court this week but failed to show up. As a result, the embattled R&B singer lost the civil lawsuit by default, according to The Chicago Tribune.
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He was expected to address the allegations he’d sexually abused an underage girl in the late ’90s. The now-36-year-old woman filed the suit in February, alleging Kelly had participated in sexual acts with her multiple times in June 1998 when she was only 16.
Judge Moira Johnson granted the attorneys’ request to enter a judgment against Kelly on Tuesday (April 23), which could still be reversed if Kelly hires an attorney to handle the suit.
However, if Kelly doesn’t opt for legal counsel, he could be forced pay damages as soon as next month when the woman is expected to testify about her allegations against Kelly. The alleged victim’s attorney, Jeffrey Deutschman, said her testimony will likely take place in the judge’s chambers.
Kelly is currently facing 10 counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse involving four different alleged victims, three of whom were underage when the alleged abuse occurred.
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The woman, who is identified as H.W. in the court docs, is one of the 10 women in the middle of the pending charges.
In the suit, she talked about how she initially met the music superstar. H.W. says Kelly drove up to talk to her as she walked outside in May 1998. Later that day, H.W. says one of his entourage members met her at a restaurant and told her Kelly wanted to speak with her. She was then invited to his studio.
While the woman had then hoped to land a role in a music video, she says the two ended up having consistent sexual contact instead.
The suit explains it was only years later through therapy H.W. discovered her “great shame, guilt, self-blame, confusion, depression” and other emotional distress had resulted from Kelly’s alleged sexual abuse.
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Kelly has pleaded not guilty to all 10 counts.
