Criminal charges dropped against singer R Kelly in sexual assault case
R Kelly
In what might come as a major shocker to all those rooting for singer R Kelly to get criminally implicated in a sexual assault case filed by a woman in New York, the charges have been dropped.
R Kelly who was charged for allegedly sexually assaulting a woman in a Long Island hotel room, according to a report in the US-based TMZ, the criminal complaint in Dallas was recently closed for jurisdiction issues.
A civil case against the singer, however, continues.
Both criminal and civil charges were pressed by a woman named Faith Rodgers who sued the singer last May, claiming that he initiated "unwanted sexual contact" and had "abusive sex" with her in a Long Island hotel room after flying her to his concert in New York. She also reportedly filed a criminal report with Suffolk County PD in June.
As reported by TMZ, according to an August 2018 supplemental police report, Rodgers told cops that although they engaged in oral sex and sexual intercourse, it was "without any verbal or physical resistance."
Based on the absence of any video or photo evidence of the incident from the hotel, cops found the allegations to be "unprosecutable due to a lack of criminality."
According to the report, Kelly has been off the hook for months. In fact, the case was never referred to the Suffolk County DA's office for prosecution, so it had been closed last year.
The issue grew after Rodgers even secretly recorded Kelly so as to get him to confess to sexually abusing her when she was 19. It was then aired in the form of a six-hour documentary series titled ‘Surviving R. Kelly’ that revisited accusations of criminal misconduct including having sex with several minors.
The docu-series drew flak for the singer when ‘All of Me’ singer John Legend was seen along with the survivors of the alleged assault in the video supporting their cause.