UPDATE, 8/2/19, 11:16 a.m., EST
According to reports, R. Kelly pleaded not guilty to the sex crime charges against him in NYC, and he was denied bail.
Per Variety, the singer was donned in blue prison attire over an orange shirt during his arraignment on Friday (Aug. 2). He reportedly smiled at his girlfriends Joycelyn Savage and Azriel Clary, who were present at the hearing.
Read the original story below.
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R. Kelly is expected to appear in a New York City court on Friday (Aug. 2) for federal sex crime arraignments, per reports.
According to Billboard, Kelly was scheduled to appear at back-to-back hearings in the Big Apple, and the hearings come after separate charges in Chicago.
“The papers allege that Kelly arranged for some of the victims to meet him on the road for illegal sex,” the site reads. “He had one victim travel in 2017 to a show on Long Island, where he had unprotected sex with her without telling her ‘he had contracted an infectious venereal disease’ in violation of New York law, they say.”
Kelly’s lawyer reportedly had a difficult time getting in touch with his client before today’s hearing, as he landed in New Jersey a day earlier and hasn’t been vocal with him.
“I have spent the hours that followed his landing on the phone with the BOP at both New York MCC and Brooklyn MDC trying to locate my client, but no one would provide that information to me, even recognizing I am his attorney, instead directing me to bop.gov to find out where he would be,” Douglas Anton wrote in an explanation to the judge as to why he may need more time to discuss things with his client before the scheduled hearings.
