[NEWS] Singer R. Kelly denied bail on U.S. charges of sex crimes over two decades – Loganspace AI

CHICAGO (Reuters) – R&B singer R. Kelly pleaded now not guilty on Tuesday to a raft of federal bills accusing him of running a blueprint to force girls folks and girls to present sex for himself and others, and a specialize in ordered that he stay in prison with out bail.

A federal specialize in said the well-known motive he was denying bail was obstruction of justice bills, portion of a multi-count indictment unveiled on Friday in Chicago and Current York.

Carrying an orange penitentiary jumpsuit and handcuffed at a hearing in federal court, R. Kelly entered his plea of now not guilty and answered “optimistic, sir,” to all of U.S. District Judge Harry Leinenweber’s questions. He made no perceive contact with supporters in the Chicago court docket.

“Kelly is an coarse hazard to the community, especially teenage girls,” federal prosecutor Angel Kroll argued. “Mr Kelly has done vast obstruction of justice.”

Prosecutors brought 18 indictments against the Grammy award-a hit artist with allegations he preyed on young folks and young girls folks for two decades, forcing them into sexual acts.

Kelly and his entourage are accused of paying thousands and thousands of greenbacks in bribes, the usage of intimidation and even giving a car to 1 victim to wait on them mild, all portion of the obstruction of justice bills.

The singer’s lawyer Steve Greenberg has said the bills stem from “decades-used” habits and were already portion of an existing Illinois sexual assault case or outdated allegations that resulted in Kelly’s acquittal.

Greenberg said R. Kelly was now not a flight likelihood as he spent all his time in his one mattress room apartment on the 48th floor of the Trump Tower in Chicago and had no money.

“If he was going to hover he would hang done so already,” Greenberg said in court.

Two girls folks who advise they’ve been in a consensual relationship with R. Kelly were on the hearing, but did now not talk in court or comment to newshounds.

The girls folks, Joycelyn Savage and Azriel Clary, expressed their toughen for the singer this week in a video posted on entertainment records home TMZ.

Most appealing identified for his hits “Bump n’ Grind” and “I Agree with I Can Cruise,” R. Kelly faces a maximum penitentiary sentence of over 190 years for the Chicago bills and decades more for those filed in Current York. He’s already struggling with sexual assault bills in Illinois that may maybe well set him in the relieve of bars for as a lot as 30 years.

The singer and yarn producer faces bills relationship relieve as far as 1998 for counts starting from enticing a minor, to producing child pornography and obstruction of justice.

Superstar lawyer Michael Avenatti, who says he represents three of Kelly’s victims, on Monday said the singer paid over $2 million to wait on one young girl off the stand in his 2008 trial on child pornography bills, in which he was acquitted.

“The adaptation between his used conditions and now is that his victims are cooperating with law enforcement,” said prosecutor Kroll.