Judge Won't Increase R. Kelly's Bond On Cook County Charges; Woman Who Posted Bail Can't Get $100,000 Back
CHICAGO (CBS) -- A Cook County judge on Tuesday denied prosecutors' request to increase R. Kelly's $1 million bond for sexual assault and sexual abuse charges, noting the singer already is being held without bail on separate sex crime allegations in federal court.
The same judge also ruled the woman who posted Kelly's bail can't get her $100,000 back.
Kelly walked into court in an orange jumpsuit, escorted by armed sheriff's deputies. He is facing four separate indictments in Cook County, involving multiple counts of sexual assault and sexual abuse against four women years ago. Three of the alleged victims were children at the time, according to prosecutors.
The singer posted bond after his original February arrest, but Cook County prosecutors asked for an increase in Kelly's bond in August, after federal prosecutors in Chicago and New York brought new charges against him.
Judge Lawrence Flood denied that request at a hearing on Tuesday, noting Kelly already is being held without bail on the federal charges.
"It's kind of a moot point," Flood said. "If there's a change in circumstances, and he is somehow released from custody, and you want to bring it back before me, I'll take a look at it at that time."
Meantime, an attorney for the woman, Valencia Love, who paid the $100,000 bail money for Kelly to be released from jail earlier this year asked Flood to return that money to her.
"There's been a substantial change of circumstances," attorney John Collins said. "In this instance, he's held no bond, so the purposes of the bond are frustrated in Illinois."
Collins said the woman who paid Kelly's bail had no knowledge of additional investigations against Kelly when she agreed to put up the 10% of his $1 million bond required to spring him from jail.
With Kelly now being held without bond on separate federal sex crime charges, Collins said, "there's no need to have her money sitting in deposit."
Flood said there was no basis for Collins' request, noting the woman who posted Kelly's bail signed a bond slip warning she could lose that money even if Kelly met the conditions of his bond, because a judge might order that money used to pay his attorney's fees, court costs, fines, or other expenses.
The next hearing in Kelly's case in Cook County has been scheduled for Dec. 4, but Kelly is not required to be at that hearing.
His trial on federal sex crime charges in Chicago has been scheduled for next April.
Kelly has been in federal custody since July 11, when he was arrested in connection with two separate federal cases in Chicago and New York.
The federal indictment in Chicago charges him with 13 felony counts including child pornography, enticement of a minor to engage in criminal sexual activity, and obstruction of justice.
According to the charges in Chicago, Kelly sexually abused five girls in the late 1990s, made videos of four of the victims, and then paid hush money and made threats to cover up his sex crimes.
The charges also include allegations he paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to recover tapes of him sexually abusing the girl at the center of his 2008 child pornography trial and coerced the victim to lie about what happened.
In the New York case, Kelly is accused of racketeering and Mann Act violations, which involve transporting a person across state lines to engage in illegal sexual activity. The racketeering case also accuses him of kidnapping, sexual exploitation of a child and forced labor.