R. Kelly Heading Back to Jail After Failing to Make Child Support Payment
UPDATE: After three nights in Cook County Jail, R. Kelly was released Saturday after repaying $161,000 in delinquent child support, the Associated Press reports. A Cook County Sheriff’s Department spokeswoman confirmed the money was posted Saturday morning but did not reveal who had paid the outstanding payments. The singer was released Saturday afternoon; Fox 32 Chicago posted footage of Kelly exiting the jail. “It’s open season on R. Kelly,” the singer’s lawyer Steve Greenberg told the press. “There’s no money for these people. There might be their 15 minutes of fame.”
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Hours after his bizarre CBS interview aired Wednesday morning, R. Kelly was ordered to return to Illinois’ Cook County Jail after the singer failed to pay off $160,000 in child support.
Separate from Kelly’s criminal sex abuse charges – which he pleaded not guilty to and remains out on bail after several nights at Cook County Jail – the singer had a March 6th hearing set stemming from the delinquent child support he owed his ex-wife Andrea Kelly, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.
Kelly had until 10 a.m. EST Wednesday to pay the $161,663 he owed; when he didn’t, the judge at his child support hearing sentenced the singer back to Cook County Jail.
“According to the contempt order signed by the judge last month, Kelly owes $194,000, and had to pay $161,000 by today or else he’d be jailed,” Sun-Times reporter Andy Grimm tweeted. “Divorce lawyers tell me that it’s not unusual for a judge to keep someone in jail for weeks or months while determining ability to pay.”
Kelly’s publicist says Kelly was ready to pay 50-60K today and set up a payment plan. He expected to leave court free.
— Sam Charles (@samjcharles) March 6, 2019
Kelly’s publicist, Darryll Johnson, told media Wednesday that Kelly was expecting to work out a payment arrangement with the court and did not expect the judge to impose that Kelly pay the entire amount. “He just didn’t have the money,” Johnson said, adding that he hoped Kelly would leave jail by the middle of next week. “He came here in good spirits expecting to walk out. He came here to make some arrangements with what he had.”
Johnson added that Kelly’s mood was “depressed, deflated, upset” when he found out he would be going back to jail.
Kelly would need to pay the delinquent child support in order for release; when the singer was unable to bail out of Cook County Jail in February, his lawyer Steve Greenberg admitted that Kelly’s finances were “a mess” in the aftermath of Surviving R. Kelly. A rep for Kelly did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
Reports from the courthouse stated that Valencia Love, the woman who bailed Kelly out of Cook County Jail following the sex abuse charges, and her lawyer were in attendance for Wednesday’s hearing, though it’s unclear whether she would again help finance Kelly’s release.