Singer R. Kelly appeared Friday at a federal courthouse in New York and pled not guilty to charges he sexually exploited women and girls, isolating them from their loved ones and controlling when they ate and used the bathroom.
Authorities arrested Kelly, whose real name is Robert Sylvester Kelly, last month on dual federal indictments out of Illinois and New York.
He pleaded not guilty Friday to five charges leveled against him by federal prosecutors in New York, WNBC reported. A judge ordered him held without bond, according to WPIX, citing Kelly's financial resources and his incentive to flee.
Prosecutors last month filed sex-related racketeering charges against Kelly in New York, accusing him and his entourage of preying on his fans to recruit women and girls to have sex with him. Prosecutors said Kelly implemented rules to control aspects of the victims' lives, dictating when they could leave their rooms and prohibiting them from looking at other men.
Prosecutors said last month that Kelly, 52, "isolated the women and girls from their friends and family and made them dependent on him for their financial well-being."
In a letter filed Wednesday in court, Kelly's attorney, Douglas Anton, said the allegations against his client are nothing more than "groupie remorse" perceived as criminal in the wake of Lifetime's popular "Surviving R. Kelly" TV series and the subsequent call by Cook County, Illinois, Prosecutor Kim Fox for victims to come forward.
Gloria Allred, an attorney representing three of Kelly's accusers, told Reuters that Anton's letter provided a preview of the arguments he's likely to make in court.
"If that's all he's got, I think he's going to have major challenges in this case," she told Reuters.
Kelly previously pleaded not guilty to 13 federal charges out of Illinois, including child exploitation and obstruction of justice. Prosecutors said Kelly for years sexually abused at least five girls as young as 13 years old and that he threatened, intimidated and abused the victims and witnesses to keep them from revealing his crimes.
A judge last month ordered him held in custody until his trial.
In addition to the federal charges, Kelly also faces a slew of sexual assault and abuse charges in Cook County, Illinois, where he's been accused of abusing several women, some of whom authorities said were girls at the time the abuse began.
Kelly, one of the top-selling recording artists of all time, has been accused of sexual misconduct several times over the years, allegations he’s consistently denied.
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