R. Kelly’s lawyer held a press conference Friday night outside the Chicago police station where the singer turned himself in to face 10 charges of aggravated criminal sexual abuse.
“I suspect this is succumbing to public pressure,” Kelly’s lawyer Steven Greenberg told the media. “I think [prosecutors] shouldn’t have rushed to judgment. He’s an innocent man.”
On Friday, the Cook County State’s Attorney indicted Kelly on 10 counts based on the singer’s alleged sexual encounters with four women, including three that were underage at the time. The charges came just a week after lawyer Michael Avenatti acquired a previously unseen sex tape that allegedly depicts Kelly and an underage girl.
“I haven’t watched Avenatti’s tape. I wonder why [Cook County district attorney] Kim Foxx isn’t investigating him for watching child porn, for disseminating child porn, which I’m sure he’s done many times,” Greenberg said, adding that Avenatti is a “coward” who “blocked me from his Twitter account.”
However, Greenberg noted that “one of the charges appears to involve the same alleged victim from the earlier tape,” which resulted in a 2008 trial where Kelly was acquitted.
“Double jeopardy should bar that case. [Kelly] won that case,” Greenberg added.
Asked about his client’s wellbeing, the lawyer said, “Mr. Kelly is strong. He’s got a lot of support and he’s going to be vindicated on all these charges,” the Associated Press reports.
Prior to Kelly’s surrender to police, when news spread early Friday that the singer had been indicted on charges, Greenberg told CBS Chicago that his client was a “sacrificial lamb.”
“There’s no merit to any of this,” he added. “He’ll be acquitted because he didn’t do anything.”
Kelly’s bail hearing is scheduled for Saturday; the singer spent Friday night in police custody, Chicago police spokesperson Anthony Guglielmi tweeted.