The Latest: Kelly arrives at Chicago child support hearing
CHICAGO (AP) — The Latest on the sexual abuse case against R&B singer R. Kelly (all times local):
8:20 p.m.
Two women who live with R. Kelly in Chicago say their parents are trying to get money from the R&B singer so they have been lying about Kelly holding them against their will.
Joycelyn Savage and Azriel Clary, in an interview with “CBS This Morning” co-host Gayle King, defend their relationship with Kelly and deny reports that they have been brainwashed.
The 23-year-old Savage tells King: “Our parents are basically out here just to get money and scam.”
Clary, who is 21, breaks into tears during the interview and King asks her why she’s crying.
Clary says she’s “crying because you guys don’t know the truth.” She says what’s being said is “lies for money.”
Both women’s parents say they never received any money from Kelly and have never asked him for money. Clary’s parents say they “never ‘sold’ our daughter to him or anyone else.”
Kelly was charged last month with sexually abusing three girls and a woman dating back to 1998.
CBS says interviews with Savage and Clary will air Thursday.
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4 p.m.
A Cook County Sheriff’s Office official says singer R. Kelly won’t be released from jail until he pays $161,000 in back child support he owes.
Sheriff’s office spokeswoman Sophia Ansari says Kelly was taken into custody Wednesday during a hearing over the child support and that his next hearing is scheduled for next Wednesday.
Kelly’s publicist, Darryll Johnson, says Kelly came to the hearing prepared to pay $50,000 to $60,000, but the judge wanted the whole amount. He says Kelly didn’t have the whole amount because he hasn’t been able to work.
Kelly was charged last month with 10 counts of aggravated sexual abuse involving four women, including three who were underage at the time the abuse is alleged to have occurred. He spent a weekend in jail before someone posted his $100,000 bail, and his defense attorney said at the time that Kelly’s finances were “a mess.”
Kelly has denied any wrongdoing and says his accusers are lying.
-The spelling of Darryll Johnson’s first name has been corrected. It had been misspelled “Darrell.”
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3:45 p.m.
Authorities say R&B singer R. Kelly was taken into custody during a hearing in Chicago over unpaid child support.
Kelly left the courtroom with his lawyers on Wednesday through a different door than he had entered. His hands weren’t cuffed.
Cook County Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman Sophia Ansari says Kelly was taken into custody and will be transferred to the county jail. She says she doesn’t know the reason he was taken into custody, including whether it had to do with unpaid child support he owes.
Kelly was charged last month with 10 counts of aggravated sexual abuse pertaining to four women years ago, including three who were underage at the time.
The singer has denied wrongdoing and pleaded not guilty.
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2:40 p.m.
A 23-year-old woman described by R. Kelly as one of his girlfriends has told her family that she is “happy” with the embattled R&B artist.
Joycelyn Savage said Wednesday during a phone call with her parents that she has told them a “million, million times” that she’s “OK” where she is and that they “need to stop.”
The call took place after her parents, Timothy and Jonjelyn Savage, held a news conference in Georgia during which they said they hadn’t spoken to their daughter in two years and alleged that Kelly was holding her against her will.
The call was on speaker-phone at the office of the couple’s lawyer, Gerald Griggs, and was captured on cellphone video and posted on Twitter.
Kelly is charged with having sexually abused four other women years ago, including three who were underage at the time. He has pleaded not guilty and has denied any wrongdoing.
2 p.m.
R. Kelly has arrived at a child support hearing in Chicago.
The R&B singer who is out on bail in a criminal case accusing him of sexually abusing four women years ago, including three who were underage at the time, didn’t appear to say anything as he walked past a throng of reporters into the courtroom on Wednesday.
David France, manager for Kelly’s ex-wife Andrea Kelly, told the Chicago Sun-Times that the singer hadn’t made a child support payment that was due by late Tuesday.
Kelly has pleaded not guilty to the 10 counts of aggravated sexual abuse that he faces. “CBS This Morning” broadcast part of an interview with Kelly earlier Wednesday in which he said the allegations against him are all lies.
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10:30 a.m.
A lawyer for a Georgia couple who say their daughter is being held against her will by R. Kelly lashed out after a television interview with the R&B singer.
Timothy and Jonjelyn Savage say it’s been two years since they heard from their daughter, 23-year-old Joycelyn Savage. They say Kelly won’t let her contact them, which Kelly denied in his interview with “CBS This Morning.”
The couple’s attorney, Gerald Griggs, bristled at Kelly’s assertions that the Savages offered up their daughter to him and were in it for the money. Griggs said Wednesday that “at no point did this family sell their daughter to anyone or provide their daughter for anything for money.”
Griggs says the family has never asked for or received money from Kelly.
The 52-year-old singer was charged last month in Chicago with sexually abusing four females dating back to 1998, including three underage girls.
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6:30 a.m.
An emotional R. Kelly says he’s being “assassinated” and denies sexually abusing women and controlling their lives.
“CBS This Morning” on Wednesday broadcast Kelly’s first interview since he was charged with sexually abusing four people, including three underage girls. Kelly says “all of them are lying.”
The R&B singer says he’s done “lots of things wrong” when it comes to women, but he says he’s apologized. He denies doing anything against their will.
The singer believes social media is to blame for creating the allegations against him.
At one point during the interview, Kelly stands up and rants, saying: “I have been buried alive, but I’m alive.” He says he needs someone to help him “not have a big heart.”
CBS says it interviewed Kelly for 80 minutes.
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Check out the AP’s complete coverage of the investigations into R. Kelly.
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