After spending the weekend in jail in Chicago, R&B star R. Kelly was released on bond Monday after an earlier hearing in his sexual abuse case. NBC 5’s Natalie Martinez and Patrick Fazio have the latest details.
The woman who bailed R. Kelly out of jail Monday told NBC 5 she has known the R&B singer for years, considers him a good friend and posted his bond because “he needed help.”
Valencia Love said Kelly, who spent three nights in Cook County Jail on criminal sexual abuse charges, told her he is innocent. She told NBC 5 in a phone interview that she wants his case to be heard in court and not the media.
The Blast reported the businesses Love owns is receiving a deluge of negative Yelp reviews after it was revealed that she was the person who helped get Kelly out of jail.
She told NBC 5 she feels like she is getting beat up online for “no good reason.”
Kelly's attorneys entered a not guilty plea for all 10 counts of aggravated sexual abuse that the singer faces. He had been booked on charges alleging that he sexually abused four women, including three who were minors at the time.
Later Monday evening, Kelly and his attorney pushed through a scrum of reporters and got into what appeared to be the same black van that took him to the police station where he turned himself in on Friday.
Judge Lawrence Flood maintained Kelly's $100,000 bond and said special conditions will apply, including no firearms or weapons in his possession, no contact with anyone under 18 years old and the surrender of his passport.
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Kelly left the courtroom with his hands behind his back.
"Our position at this point is Mr. Kelly has done absolutely nothing wrong," Kelly's attorney Steve Greenberg told reporters outside the courtroom. "No one has shown us any evidence that he has done anything wrong."
Sitting in the second row of the courtroom Monday was attorney Michael Avenatti, who claimed earlier that day he was submitting new evidence against Kelly to prosecutors.
Avenatti, who says he represents two of Kelly's victims, said he gave prosecutors a second video tape, which purportedly shows Kelly with a 14-year-old girl. Avenatti previously said he handed over a videotape days before charges were filed against Kelly.
"The conduct in the tape can be described as nothing short of outrageous, illegal - it leaves no question as to Mr. Kelly's guilt," Avenatti said outside the courtroom.
Avenatti added that over the weekend "a number of additional witnesses" came forward describing "a decades-long system of abuse by Mr. Kelly of underage girls and conduct that is illegal, criminal and is indicative of someone that should never walk free another day in his life."
"All of these girls are not lying ladies and gentlemen. It is impossible," he said.
