Things are not getting any better for R Kelly on the legal front. Kelly is facing new bribery charges apparently related to his 1994 marriage to the R&B singer Aaliyah, who was 15 at the time.
A revised indictment in federal court in Brooklyn accuses Kelly of scheming with others to pay for a “fraudulent identification document” for someone identified only as “Jane Doe” on 30 August 1994.
The marriage license listed her age as 18, the state's minimum age requirement to marry without parental consent.
A day later, Kelly, then 27, married Aaliyah D Haughton in a secret ceremony arranged by Kelly at a hotel in Chicago. The marriage was annulled months later because of Haughton’s age.
The singer is accused of bribing an Illinois government official to obtain the fake ID.
R&B singer and actress Aaliyah married R Kelly in a secret ceremony in 1994.
Steven Greenberg, Kelly’s lawyer, told the newspaper the new charges do not “appear to materially alter the landscape”.
Defense attorney Douglas Anton on Thursday called the latest charge against his client “ridiculous and absurd.”
The new charge is the latest to be filed against Kelly, who is being held without bond in a Chicago jail pending trial on federal charges in Illinois and New York.
The charges include sexual exploitation of children, child pornography, racketeering, kidnapping, forced labor, trafficking women and girls interstate for sex, and conspiracy to defraud the US.
On Thursday, prosecutors also filed a copy of a letter sent to Kelly's attorneys listing records they obtained as part of their investigation, including Aaliyah's birth certificate, their marriage license, and the annulment records.
