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Then, on Friday in Chicago, after weeks of renewed scrutiny, Kelly was indicted.
Authorities accused him of aggravated criminal sexual abuse involving four victims, three of whom were underage, according to the Cook County state’s attorney, Kim Foxx. Aggravated criminal sexual abuse can carry a sentence of three to seven years in prison for each count. Kelly, whose real name is Robert Kelly, faces 10 of them.
“This was 30 years in the making,” said Jim DeRogatis, the music journalist who was among the first to document allegations against Kelly. The singer, 52, was tried on 14 counts of child pornography and ultimately acquitted in 2008.
Foxx said the events related to Kelly’s charges spanned from 1998 to 2010. Three of the victims were between the ages of 13 and 16 at the time of the incidents.
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Kelly is accused of ejaculating on one victim, identified by the initials L.C., in a forcible encounter, an attempted criminal sexual assault. Court documents said she reported the offense to law enforcement officials within two years of its occurrence.
Prosecutors said Kelly had oral sex and intercourse with the other three victims, all of whom were under 17, too young to legally consent.
Kelly is due in court in Chicago on Saturday for a bail hearing. His lawyer, Steven Greenberg, did not respond to repeated requests for comment Friday, but he has said his client denies any wrongdoing. He posted on Twitter on Friday evening that his client intended to turn himself in to investigators in Chicago later that night.
Kelly became the focus of scrutiny after the documentary “Surviving R. Kelly” was broadcast on Lifetime in January.
Celebrity lawyer Michael Avenatti said last week that he had obtained a video showing Kelly having sex with a 14-year-old girl, and had given it to the Cook County state’s attorney’s office in Chicago.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.