Chicago • R&B singer R. Kelly was scheduled to be released on Saturday from the Chicago jail where he’s been held since Wednesday after someone paid the $161,000 he owed in back child support, a law enforcement spokeswoman said.
Sophia Ansari, a spokeswoman for the Cook County Sheriff's Department, which operates the jail, said that she expected Kelly's release would come early Saturday afternoon. She said the money was posted sometime Saturday morning. She did not immediately know who posted the money.
Kelly was ordered taken into custody on Wednesday by a judge after he said that he did not have the entire $161,000 he owed in child support.
That trip to jail was Kelly’s second in a matter of weeks. Last month, after he was charged with 10 counts of aggravated sexual abuse pertaining to four women, including three who were minors when the alleged abuse occurred, he was taken to the same jail. Kelly, whose attorney said at the time that the singer’s finances were in disarray, then spent a weekend in jail before a 47-year-old suburban Chicago business owner posted his $100,000 bail.
His attorney and publicist told a similar story this week before and after the hearing in which the judge ordered Kelly into custody, with the publicist telling reporters that Kelly was prepared to pay $50,000 to $60,000 on Wednesday but was not able to pay the entire amount.
Kelly has denied any wrongdoing and has pleaded not guilty to the charges. He has also very publicly proclaimed his innocence, telling Gayle King in an interview that aired this past week on “CBS This Morning” that all his accusers were lying about him. He also talked about his finances, saying that people had stolen money from his bank accounts, though he offered no details.
