Two women have come forward for the first time with sexual misconduct allegations against R. Kelly, who's allegedly the subject of a recently reported video tape showing sexual acts with an underage girl.
Gloria Allred is repping both women, who gave a press conference on the allegations Thursday afternoon. Per Allred, they were compelled to come forward "in order to encourage others who may have been victimized by him to come forward." Allred said Kelly used his fame to manipulate and victimize her clients, which she argued fits into an "alleged pattern" of singling out vulnerable "teenagers."
The women, Latresa Scaff and Rochelle Washington, also spoke during the conference, which was streamed live via TMZ. They were teenagers when they say they first met Kelly in Baltimore in the mid 90s, at which point they attended a party during which they were allegedly offered cocaine, marijuana, and alcohol.
"At the time I thought meeting a celebrity would make me be happy but in this case it didn't," Washington said Thursday. "I just wanted to have fun . . . I could never forget that day. I can't get it out of my mind, what I saw and what happened." Kelly is said to have proposed a threesome, exposed himself, and allegedly took advantage of Scaff on the night in question.
Allred also showed reporters alleged photos of both women with LL Cool J, who was reportedly also a performer at that night's show and a separate photo showing the women at the after-party. A third alleged photo showed Kelly performing that night. Both Scaff and Washington say they are willing to testify under oath.
The decades of allegations against Kelly have received renewed attention in recent years due in large part to the Lifetime docuseries Surviving R. Kelly. Executive producer dream hampton previously told Complex that the process of putting the film together was "dark," revealing that she went back into therapy.
"Well, I don't want to make it about me, but yeah," she said in January. "I'm in therapy again. It was dark. Nothing compared to what they had to go through, but just receiving their stories and holding them for as long as you did is a dark thing."
