R. Kelly’s New York Federal Racketeering Arraignment Set for August

R. Kelly, currently being held in prison with no bond following his federal indictment in Chicago, will be brought to New York in August for his arraignment on racketeering and conspiracy charges.

U.S. marshals will take the singer, who pleaded not guilty to charges of child pornography in the Chicago indictment on Tuesday, to New York to face the Eastern District’s federal indictment on August 2nd, the Chicago Tribune reported Friday. Kelly also has a September 4th hearing scheduled related to the Chicago indictment.

It’s unclear whether Kelly will remain in New York or be taken back to Chicago following the August 2nd hearing; he is currently being held in Chicago’s Metropolitan Correctional Center. Kelly’s lawyer Steven Greenberg told the Tribune that the singer is currently in solitary confinement without access to television and only five minutes of telephone privileges a day.

On Friday, Kelly associate Milton “June” Brown, also named in the Chicago indictment, faced a federal judge in Chicago and entered a not guilty plea to one charge of conspiracy to receive child pornography.

The New York indictment, filed just hours after the Chicago indictment and the singer’s arrest, includes one count of racketeering and four counts of violating the Mann Act, which prohibits transporting people over state lines for the purpose of prostitution.

The Brooklyn charges revolve around five female victims, three of whom were underage at the time of the events outlined in the indictment. The racketeering count accuses Kelly of being the ringleader of an enterprise that included the singer’s employees, bodyguards, drivers and more that helped Kelly recruit the women at concerts.

via:: Rolling Stone