R. Kelly is facing prostitution charges in Minnesota after prosecutors allege he solicited an underage girl in 2001.
According to county attorney Mike Freeman, Kelly, 52, met the 17-year-old at a concert in Minneapolis where he was doing promotional work.
Freeman said the girl was trying to get an autograph from Kelly, and that he gave her his signature and phone number.
When the girl called the number, she was invited to Kelly’s hotel room, where he offered her $200 (£164) to undress and dance with him.
He said Kelly took off his clothes and they danced together, and that they had sexual contact but not intercourse.
Kelly’s lawyer Steve Greenberg called the charges “beyond absurd” and his colleague Doug Anton said it was not clear that R. Kelly had ever met his alleged victim and the charges might be a case of “revisionist history”.
The prostitution and solicitation charges are felonies that Freeman’s office investigated after receiving a tip from a Chicago tip line.
The tip line was set up by Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx in Kelly’s home state of Illinois after she watched the documentary series Surviving R. Kelly.
“We felt we had more than enough to charge based on her testimony and corroboration from her brother”, Freeman said.
“I don’t like buying sex from minors, and I don’t think most other people do either”.
The R&B singer is currently being held without bail awaiting trial on charges of sexual assault and child pornography in Chicago and New York.
He has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
#Peace.Love.R.Kelly
