R. Kelly returned to a Chicago courtroom Tuesday as a judge declined to raise bond for his criminal matter in the city in wake of federal indictments against the singer. NBC 5’s Trina Orlando has the details.
A fight between two of R. Kelly's girlfriends inside the embattled singer’s Trump Tower condominium has led to a domestic battery charge against one of the women and sent the other to the hospital, Chicago police said Thursday.
Joycelyn Savage, 24, was taken into custody after allegedly punching a 22-year-old woman in the face Wednesday, police said, and Savage was charged with misdemeanor domestic battery.
Savage remained in custody and was due in court Thursday morning for an initial hearing, said Chicago police spokeswoman Kellie Bartoli.
It wasn't immediately known if Savage had a lawyer in the battery case.
The brawl between the women — Kelly's two recent live-in girlfriends — began shortly after 2 p.m. when Chicago police were called to the Trump Tower building for a “battery in progress” involving two women, Chicago police Officer Anthony Spicuzza told the Chicago Tribune.
The women were separated and when officers arrived, the 22-year-old woman told them that she and Savage had an argument that became physical when the older woman allegedly hit her in the face.
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Savage, whose home address is listed in the same block as Trump Tower, fled but later turned herself in to police and was arrested on signed complaints, police said. She also has a court date scheduled for Feb. 6 at the county’s domestic violence courthouse.
The younger woman was taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital, where she was listed in good condition, Spicuzza said.
“It was a battery; it was a fight, but I don’t know what condition she’s in,’’ Chicago Fire Department spokesman Larry Merritt said, adding that the injuries were not serious enough to threaten her life.
A series of videos posted to Instagram show the 22-year-old woman angrily confronting Savage before a scuffle broke out between the two. In one video, the 22-year-old told officers she was in the unit with a few other people when Savage and another woman — a “handler” for Kelly — arrived to pick up Kelly’s “awards and his Grammys and stuff,” the Chicago Sun-Times reported.
“She came to me and attacked me and I had to defend myself,” the 22-year-old told police, alleging that Savage hit her with her hands and her phone and tried to kick her, as well.
The 22-year-old's name came up last month in Brooklyn, New York, when prosecutors there asked for any Cook County marriage records, records show. The 22-year-old had until recently lived with Kelly at the Trump Tower address.
Kelly, 53 on Wednesday, is being held without bond in Chicago’s Metropolitan Correctional Center. He is charged with a variety of crimes in three states. Kelly has pleaded not guilty to federal charges in Chicago and New York of a racketeering scheme to sexually abuse girls. Kelly is also accused in Minnesota of offering a 17-year-old money in 2001 to take off her clothes and dance. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
A documentary series chronicling Kelly’s alleged sexual abuse of minors is currently being aired on Lifetime.
