Antonio Perez/Associated Press
- New York prosecutors filed a 55-page motion seeking permission to admit new evidence in R. Kelly's trial.
- The filing alleges that Kelly bribed officials and sexually abused underage boys.
- The disgraced R&B singer is due to stand trial on August 9 in New York on racketeering charges.
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On Friday, prosecutors in New York filed a 55-page motion asking a judge for permission to admit new evidence in R. Kelly's sexual abuse trial.
Federal prosecutors say they have evidence of several previously uncharged crimes committed by Kelly, including bribing officials for information and sexually abusing underage boys.
The R&B singer, whose real name is Robert Sylvester Kelly, 54, is set to face trial on August 9th in a federal court in New York. He faces racketeering charges for allegedly running an elaborate criminal enterprise to kidnap and sexually exploit young women.
The original New York indictment from March 2020 refers to six victims. The latest court filing refers to 20 Jane Does, and 2 John Does, according to NPR.
One of the new allegations made by prosecutors is that in 2006 Kelly began a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old boy he met at a McDonald's in Chicago.
According to the filing, the boy introduced Kelly to a second teenage boy aged 16 or 17, with who Kelly also had a sexual relationship with. Prosecutors allege that the singer coerced the second boy to have sex with others, which he often videotaped.
In the complaint, prosecutors added that they have a witness who claims Kelly made her download child pornography involving boys.
Prosecutors also allege that in 2019 R. Kelly bribed a Cook County clerk in Illinois in an attempt to gain information about his legal case following the release of the documentary series Surviving R. Kelly.
The document cites an audio recording of a phone call between Kelly and his "crisis manager." They discuss bribing the clerk with $2,500 and providing them with a burner phone to relay information back to Kelly's team.
Prosecutors also want to introduce evidence that in 1994 Kelly bribed an Illinois state employee with $500 to create a fake ID for the underage singer Aaliyah so that he could marry her.
The court filing alleges that Kelly believed he had impregnated Aaliyah, then 15, and wanted to marry her, so she could not be made to testify against him in court. Aaliyah died in a plane crash in 2001.
Prosecutors also want to play videos and audio recordings for the jury, showing Kelly physically and verbally abusing women.
Other allegations in the filing include unlawful imprisonment, hush-money payments, and physical abuse.
Kelly remains in prison in Brooklyn and has pleaded not guilty to all the charges against him.
In addition to the New York trial, Kelly also faces charges of possessing child pornography and obstructing federal agents by bribing his victims in a separate case in Chicago, Illinois.
The Chicago trial is currently scheduled for September.