Friday morning, a press conference held in Atlanta by R. Kelly publicist Darrell Johnson was interrupted by the family of alleged victim Joycelyn Savage.
The presser was held the morning after Kelly was arrested in Chicago in the wake of two federal indictments in Illinois and New York, respectively. That arrest, at least according to a report from Page Six, came after a Homeland Security Investigations agent watched the Lifetime docu-series Surviving R. Kelly.
"I don't wanna hear all that," Timothy Savage, Joycelyn's father, shouted during the presser. "I wanna know where my daughter's at! Answer that question!"
Johnson pushed back against subsequent questions from attendees regarding any possibility of him also facing charges, affirming that he was "hired to do a job" and is "not an enabler."
The 13-count Illinois federal indictment includes charges connected with child pornography, enticement of a minor, and obstruction of justice. Specifically, Kelly and then-manager Derrel McDavid are accused of engaging in a conspiracy that involved intimidating, threatening, pressuring, persuading, and attempting to persuade individuals with alleged access to reported videotapes of Kelly engaging in sexual acts with minors to return said tapes. These efforts, per the Illinois indictment, are alleged to have included the use of a polygraph exam.
In a pretrial letter to Judge Ann M. Donnelly, United States Attorney Richard P. Donoghue outlined the allegations against Kelly, and shared additional details on five of his accusers. The singer's alleged victims—each identified as "Jane Doe"—included three minors as and a 19-year-old woman (Jane Doe #5). The latter accuser claims Kelly had flown her out to New York in 2017, so she could attend his concert in Long Island. Hours after the show, Kelly allegedly showed up to the woman's hotel room and initiated sexual intercourse. The document states the defendant did not use a condom during the encounter, nor did he inform Jane Doe #5 he had contracted a infectious venereal disease, which is a violation of New York Law.
Per the letter:
The defendant told Jane Doe #5, in sum and substance, that if she was really 15 or 16 years old, she could tell him, suggesting he would have preferred for Jane Doe #5 to be younger.
The letter also points to a series of videos that allegedly show Kelly sexually abusing minors during the late 1990s and early 2000s. The document points to the Northern District of Illinois indictment, in which Kelly is accused of paying hundreds of thousands of dollars to retrieve the child pornography videos in an effort to conceal their existence. Kelly and "another individual also agreed to pay one of the minors and another person for their efforts to return the videos, but only after they took polygraph examinations to confirm that they had returned all copies in their possession."
Arraignment on the Illinois counts is scheduled for July 16.
The New York federal indictment, meanwhile, sees Kelly being hit with additional counts including racketeering and violating the Mann Act, which—after multiple legislative amendments—is now aimed at the prevention of transportation of an individual for the purposes of "any sexual activity that may be charged as a crime."
The New York indictment also alleges that Kelly and "the enterprise" engaged in/facilitated sexual activity without revealing a sexually transmitted disease Kelly had. Kelly and the enterprise are also alleged to have recruited women and girls for the purposes of illegal sexual acts, a pattern that's alleged to have been facilitated using rules for the women and girls including not allowing them to "look at other men." They were also allegedly required to call Kelly "Daddy."
Kelly attorney Steve Greenberg told NBC New York that the indictments were not a surprise, adding that they "look forward to his day in court." As it stands now, Kelly is being held at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in downtown Chicago.
As for possible sentences in these indictments, current estimates show that Kelly could face up to 195 years if convicted on all counts Illinois counts and—per a former federal prosecutor's comments to the Chicago Sun-Times—a life sentence in connection with the New York indictment.
A CBS affiliate in Chicago also shared footage later Friday showing the aforementioned McDavid leaving a courthouse, where he pleaded not guilty in connection with the Kelly case. He was released on $500,000 bond.
