R. Kelly is facing multiple legal battles for his alleged treatment of women.
Multiple women have come forward accusing him of sexual abuse and assault; parents of young girls say he is keeping them as sex slaves.
He’s even involved in a federal sex trafficking investigation; three different U.S. Attorney’s offices are looking into accusations in two different states. Not to mention Homeland Security…
Related: Investigators Looking For More R. Kelly Sex Tapes
So far, his only defense — besides screaming at Gayle King on TV — is one we expected had no hope of succeeding. And yet…
OK, so this particular case is about a woman named Heather Williams, who has accused the singer of sexually abusing her when she was just 16 years old.
While Kelly is now facing criminal charges — 10 counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse — Heather has been looking for another kind of restitution; she filed a civil suit against the singer.
When Kelly and his lawyers failed to show up for the Chicago trial, Judge Moira Johnson issued a default judgment in favor of the plaintiff, who was seeking $50,000 in damages.
So about two weeks ago, Kelly’s lawyers, Raed Shalabi and Zaid Abdallah, filed what looked like a Hail Mary — they claimed he only lost the case due to his inability to read.
See, they contend Kelly was served the papers for the suit while he was in jail, so he couldn’t hand them over to his lawyers. And without their help he had no idea the docs were even about a lawsuit; he didn’t know about the court date or any of it. The lawyers wrote:
“The defendant does not recall being served. The Defendant suffers from a learning disability that adversely affects his ability to read, in essence he cannot.”
So because he didn’t realize he was supposed to be in court, it was unfair for him to lose?
Well, apparently the court agrees!!!
Judge Johnson officially vacated her earlier judgment, setting a new court date for June 19.
Man, try that in any court in America with a client who isn’t rich and famous, see how far you get…
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The alleged victim’s attorney, Jeffrey Deutschman, told reporters he and his client were “happy” to have their day in court, saying:
“We don’t envision the jury will find anything but that the defendant abused my client when she was a minor.”
Guess we’ll all find out next month.
BTW, remember when we said R. Kelly was in jail when he was served the lawsuit papers?
That wasn’t for one of his many sexual abuse investigations; it was for failing to pay child support.
In fact, Kelly was potentially facing MORE jail time for missing payments — he reportedly has to pay ex-wife Drea Kelly $20,833 a month.
During the hearing, which happened to be on the same day as the sexual abuse suit hearing (busy day in court) Kelly paid the $62,499.70 he owed.
So it looks like he won’t be going to jail after all. Not for child support anyway.
[Image via JLN Photography/WENN.]
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