R. Kelly's bond is set at $1 million
A Chicago judge set R&B singer R. Kelly's bond at $1 million Saturday, $250,000 for each of the four victims he is alleged to have sexually abused. He will have to post $100,000 bail to be released ahead of trial.
Kelly has been charged with 10 counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse, and three of the four victims were under 18 when the alleged abuse occurred. One of them supplied investigators with a shirt she wore during an interaction with Kelly, prosecutors said in court Saturday, and the clothing tested positive for his DNA.
Kelly has denied all accusations, and his attorney, Steve Greenberg, told reporters Saturday the singer "doesn't have to have nonconsensual sex" because he is "a rock star."
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Greenberg also said Kelly hoped to post bail by Saturday evening. Kelly was ultimately unable to assemble the funds and spent a second night in jail.
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Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.
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