Source: Chicago Tribune / Getty
As R. Kelly is getting punished for the crimes he’s been committing for the past few decades, another charge has been added to the pile.
Kelly has been charged with bribing a public employee in 1994 to obtain a fake ID for his then-15-year-old bride, Aaliyah. The case names her as Jane Doe, but the timeline of Kelly’s relationship with the R&B singer line up.
The new pending charge was filed within a federal indictment in Brooklyn adding to the 52-year-old’s already hefty list of crimes like racketeering and sex trafficking. He’ll face all those charges in May — after he first goes up on trial on separate federal charges in April in Chicago.
Kelly’s lawyer Douglas Anton released a statement to Rolling Stone denying the new allegations.
“The 1994 Allegation that my client procured a fake ID is an absolute absurdity, backed by more innuendo and baseless accusations. This additional charge smacks of the same ‘she said she said’ (yes SHE twice) that makes up the totality of the baseless claims in the New York Federal Indictment. To think that the Federal Government has nothing better to do th[a]n go back 25 years and address a ‘fake ID’ charge makes their whole case weaker. I handled three fake ID cases last month and got them dismissed with $33.00 in ‘court costs’ each. But when the federal government brings the same thing, it sounds so much more ominous. It’s still the same nonsense… Oh, and my client had absolutely no involvement with this, if it ever even happened at all.”
The Chicago singer’s alleged relationship with Aaliyah 25 years ago was always a point of contention for fans and critics alike because she was just 15 while Kelly was 27. At the time, Vibe Magazine, unearthed a marriage certificate that listed the couple did indeed get married in Illinois and Aaliyah was listed as 18 on the certificate and was annulled months later by her parents. Now, Kelly will finally have to answer to the law about marrying an underage woman.
The two met eachother when she was 14 and he would become her musical mentor and serve as the major contributor to her debut album, eerily titled Age Ain’t Nothin’ But A Number.
Kelly is currently being held in jail and the chances of him ever getting out are slim.
