R. Kelly’s Attorney Lost Him for an Entire Night Before His Child Porn Court Date

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R. Kelly vanished the day before his scheduled court appearance in New York, and for the entirety of Thursday night, his attorney didn’t know where he was.

The R&B star’s attorney finally managed to get a hold of him Friday morning and discovered he was in custody in Brooklyn. But the holdup delayed his hearing in federal court, where he pleaded not guilty to charges of racketeering related to kidnapping and sending child pornography across state boundaries. Kelly also requested bail, but the judge denied his appeal to get out of jail.

"He's not going anywhere," Judge Steven L. Tiscione said and pointed out that Kelly still faces indictments in Illinois.

Kelly’s attorney Douglas Anton said the 52-year-old R&B star disappeared between the transfer from custody in Chicago, where he was arrested last month, to Brooklyn. He boarded his flight Thursday afternoon and landed in Teterboro Airport in New Jersey.

But nobody told his attorneys where the incarcerated singer was going, according to the New York Daily News. Anton then spent Thursday night on the hunt for his client.

“I have spent the hours that followed his landing on the phone with the (Bureau of Prisons) at both New York MCC and Brooklyn MDC trying to locate my client,” Anton said in a letter to the judges hearing Kelly’s case before Friday’s proceedings.

But Anton finally discovered Kelly had arrived at the Brooklyn Metropolitan Detention Center before the court appearance after the center’s website updated its records.

READ: R. Kelly's career is finally crashing down. Here's how it happened.

The 18-page indictment filed against R. Kelly in New York on July 10 accuses Kelly of pedophilic behavior, including having sex with minors, hiding and transmitting his sexually-transmitted disease, and making child pornography. He’s also accused of demanding the girls who allegedly suffered from his abuse refer not to his actual name, which is Robert, but “Daddy.”

Of the five alleged victims, three are underage girls.

Kelly could serve him over 80 years in prison on the New York charges alone. He also faces 13 separate federal counts of exploiting underage girls in Chicago.

Cover image: In this June 26, 2019, file photo, Musician R. Kelly departs from the Leighton Criminal Court building after a status hearing in his criminal sexual abuse trial in Chicago. (AP Photo/Amr Alfiky, File)