R. Kelly was charged Friday with 10 counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse on Friday morning in Cook County, Illinois.
A Cook County judge then approved an arrest warrant for charges on Friday afternoon, the Chicago Sun-Times first reported.
The R&B superstar has faced nearly two decades of accusations of sexual abuse. And last Thursday, Cook County prosecutors reportedly received a 45-minute videotape that is said to show Kelly performing multiple sex acts with an underage girl, whom both Kelly and the girl describe on tape as being 14 years old.
Celebrity lawyer Michael Avenatti said he turned over the tape to the Cook County State’s Attorney Office. “My client knows the identity of the girl and R. Kelly. He identified the two of them on the videotape,” Avenatti told CNN last week. “He worked for and has known R. Kelly for decades and he met the girl on a number of occasions.”
Moments before the Friday charges were announced, Avenatti ominously tweeted: ‘It’s over.’
The music superstar has repeatedly denied all accusations against him.
“[Kelly] never knowingly had sex with an underage woman, he never force anyone to do anything, he never held anyone captive, he never abuse anyone,” his lawyer, Steve Greenberg, told The Associated Press last month.
