R. Kelly May Soon Be Indicted Due to New Video Evidence

A senior law-enforcement official says that R. Kelly may soon be indicted in Illinois due to a recently discovered videotape that shows the R&B artist sexually assaulting a minor, the New Yorker reports. The official and two additional sources who have seen the tape confirmed its contents.

Kelly was previously indicted in Illinois on 21 counts of child pornography in 2002, charges also connected to video evidence. That particular tape was made when Kelly was 32, in either 1998 or 1999, and showed the singer sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl. The video ran for a whole 26:39—however, Kelly was acquitted in 2008. The 52-year-old’s crimes have unfortunately long been overlooked, in no small part because his victims were young, black girls. The recent Lifetime documentary series Surviving R. Kelly has played a large part in bringing his history of sexual abuse to the fore again.

The New Yorker reports that Kelly’s legal representative, Steve Greenberg, did not provide a comment in response to their story.

Greenberg said recently in an AP interview, “[R. Kelly] never knowingly had sex with an underage woman, he never forced anyone to do anything, he never held anyone captive, he never abused anyone.”