R. Kelly’s former hairdresser, Lanita Carter, who was previously identified only as the anonymous “L.C.” in the new criminal charges against the singer, has come out publicly to detail the time Kelly allegedly assaulted her during an interview with CBS This Morning Thursday.
The alleged assault took place in 2003 when Carter was 24. She had been working as Kelly’s hair braider for over a year and had even defended him in 2002 when he was arrested on child pornography charges. However, on February 18th, 2003, Carter claimed Kelly called her in to braid his hair and, after she refused to also massage his head, allegedly yanked her head down by the braid and demanded she perform oral sex.
“He pulled my braid down by him,” Carter recalled. “And he say, ‘Suck it for daddy, suck it for daddy.’ And I said, ‘No.’ And I did like this. And he just started going, [spitting noises]. He did it, like, six times.”
Carter said Kelly only stopped when someone knocked on the door. After the incident, Carter called the police and gave them a shirt, upon which they allegedly obtained DNA evidence from R. Kelly’s semen. However, charges were not filed in Carter’s case at the time and 10 months later she signed a $650,000 settlement.
R. Kelly’s attorney, Steve Greenberg, told CBS, “These allegations were fully investigated by the police and prosecutors… And a decision was made, after evaluating all of the evidence, not to bring any charges.”
Carter said she decided to finally come forward with her story after Cook County state’s attorney, Kimberly Foxx, put out a call for victims amidst the uproar that surrounded Lifetime’s docuseries, Surviving R. Kelly. She noted that she was moved to speak publicly, too, after watching R. Kelly’s explosive interview with CBS’ Gayle King.
“This is a release,” Carter said. “I’ve been carryin’ this since 2003. “I don’t want to be in the public. But this is my life… If I die tomorrow, I know that I told the truth.”