R Kelly pleads not guilty to bribing govt official to get fake ID for Aaliyah

Trapped in the closet hitmaker R. Kelly pleaded not guilty in relation to a case that had charged him of offering a bribe to an official to create a fabricated document for Aaliyah, then 15 years of age, the day before he married her. According to reports, the charges are the latest in a case that accused him of running a racket of hiring underage girls for sex. The I Believe I can fly singer pleaded not guilty in a video conference before US District Judge Ann Donnelly presiding in a federal court in Brooklyn. The R&B singer was taken into custody on different charges by officials in Chicago and Brooklyn. However, the accusation involving singer Aaliyah was included in an indictment on December 5.

Lawyer says bribery accusation baseless

According to reports, the federal prosecutors said R. Kelly had asked someone else to bribe a government officer to create a fake identification card under the name of Jane Doe#1, with sources suggesting that the card was being made for Aaliyah. Kelly then married Aaliyah in 1994. However, the marriage was annulled the very next year in 1995.

The lawyer representing R. Kelly, Douglas Anton, said that the bribery accusation was baseless and ridiculous, adding that his client was doing well in prison and was still composing music. According to reports, the singer will be facing a trial in May 2020. However, he has denied all charges against him. 11 years ago in 2008, the R&B singer was tried on charges based on child pornography and was found not guilty.

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In a separate incident, R Kelly came under the scanner yet again as he faced allegations of abuse by one of his longtime girlfriends. Joycelyn Savage, 23, in a series of posts alleged constant surveillance of her daily habits by the singer and his staff. Savage in her post claimed that she first met Kelly at a concert in 2015 when she was just 19-year-old. Savage and her friend were flown to Kelly's California studio where he tried to get her signed to a label and promised to help her pursue her dreams of becoming a singer. Savage moved in with Kelly after a few months and said he pampered her with gifts, clothing and travel before things took a dark turn.

Savage alleged that Kelly started displaying controlling behaviour and asked her to address him as "Daddy" or "Master". Sharing one instance when she didn't address him as any of those, he choked her until she blacked out. In another surprising disclosure, the post alleged that she became pregnant twice but the pregnancies ended up in at-home abortions to prevent the news from breaking out.

In one of the instances when her father said that she was being held captive by the singer, she refuted the allegations in her statement to the media saying that she was "totally fine". She later claimed that intimidation and starvation were the reasons for her answers. "His assistant would starve me for days at a time until I learned it right word for word," she wrote.

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Read: R. Kelly Up For Status Hearing In Chicago Federal Case

(With inputs from agencies)