53-year-old R. Kelly has pleaded not guilty to recent charges of child pornography and sexually abusing a teenage girl under the age of 16, in Chicago.
During an arraignment at a hearing in Chicago on Thursday, a new alleged victim known as Minor Six was included as part of an updated federal indictment.
Allegedly, Kelly met Minor Six in either 1997 or 1998 when she was 14 or 15 years old, and he is accused of engaging in sexual contact or sexual acts with her when she was under 18.
The indictment states that Kelly “engaged in sexual contact and sexual acts” with Minor Six and four others when they were under 18. It also seeks to forfeit all assets from Kelly’s production company, Bass Productions Lt.
Prosecutor Angel Krull mentioned that they had seized over 100 electronic devices after executing a search warrant.
Judge Harry Leinenweber postponed Kelly’s trial date from 27 April to 13 October.
Kelly, who has consistently denied all abuse allegations, is facing several dozen counts of state and federal sexual misconduct charges in Illinois, Minnesota, and New York, from sexual assault to heading a racketeering scheme aimed at supplying the star with girls.
Since July, R. Kelly has been jailed and awaiting trial at a Chicago federal jail near the courthouse, where he attends pre-trial hearings.
The federal charges in Chicago accuse Kelly of filming himself having sex with underage girls and paying off potential witnesses during a trial in 2008, at which he was acquitted, to get them to change their stories.