CHICAGO: R&B superstar R. Kelly was taken into custody Wednesday for failing to pay child support, just weeks after he was briefly detained on sex abuse charges.
“He was taken into custody and he will be transported to Cook County jail later today,” Sophia Ansari of the local sheriff’s office said following a court hearing in Chicago.
Ansari said Kelly owes $161,000 and is required to pay the full amount, with the next court date in the case set for March 13.
Kelly pleaded not guilty on February 25 to 10 counts of aggravated criminal sex abuse against four victims, three of them minors. He was freed on $100,000 bail the same day, after spending three nights in jail.
Hours before the Wednesday’s hearing, CBS aired an interview with the musician in which he denied those charges — his first public comments since being indicted last month.
“I didn’t do this stuff. This not me,” Kelly told CBS This Morning, saying he was “fighting” for his life.
“Whether they’re old rumours, new rumours, future rumours, not true,” said Kelly, who became extremely upset and emotional during the interview.
The sex acts are alleged to have occurred between May 1998 and January 2010, according to prosecutors.
Kelly has been repeatedly accused of sexual misconduct before.
In 2002 he was charged after allegedly filming himself having sex with a 14-year-old girl. He was tried and acquitted of child pornography charges in 2008.
A 2017 BuzzFeed report later alleged he had kept women as virtual sex slaves at homes he owns in Chicago and Atlanta.
