Hip-hop R&B crooner and producer R. Kelly might be very close to having his day in court on child sexual abuse charges, a top Chicago Sun-Times gossip columnist projects.
In an item at the top of her May 24 column titled “Scoopsville,” Michael Sneed reported that Kelly could be indicted by a Cook County grand jury within days in connection with a probe involving a videotape from the late ‘90s that allegedly shows the R&B giant having various types of sexual with underage girls.
Sneed quotes a top law enforcement source saying: “There is no doubt the videotape was made in a building within the 1000 block of West George Street [in a jaded neighborhood on Chicago’s North Side], where Kelly lived until recently. Kelly recently sold the property.”
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The FBI enhanced pictures of the exact room where the videotape was allegedly made to determine how old it was, Sneed also reported.
R&B singer Sparkle told authorities and a Los Angeles area radio station that her niece was 14 years old when the tape was shot. Music industry insiders familiar with both Kelly and Sparkle who reviewed the footage either on videotape or DVD, including a top hip-hop music producer, say there’s no mistake that Kelly is shown having sex with Sparkle’s niece. In the past few weeks on a phone-in interview with Chicago urban commercial station WGCI-AM/FM and during a BET interview with the black television network’s top anchor Ed Gordon, Kelly has repeatedly denied appearing in the tape.
Explaining why parents or guardians for any of the girls would allow them to go out late at night unchaperoned with Kelly, who was in his late 20’s at the time the videotape footage would have been shot, the producer, who asked not to be named, said, “They were just in awe of him. They would have sold their own daughters just to be down with him.” Other Chicagoland music industry sour ces allege that Kelly privately acknowledged having the tapes as proof that any sex he would have had with the girls was consensual and not assault.
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The possible charges Kelly could face under Illinois law in addition to statutory rape is soliciting a minor, since some of the girls in the tape are seen reviewing money allegedly from the R&B star, and making a pornographic moving picture with a young adult under 17 years old. Kelly is currently identified by the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services as a potential sex offender behind an investigation conducted last year by Chicago police of Kelly’s alleged escapades after the Sun-Times first reported allegations that Kelly was having sex with underage girls. Although that investigation proved inconclusive, DCFS maintains a dossier on everyone it investigates.
Kelly’s Jive publicists could not be reached for comment.
