R. Kelly a no-show in court on Minnesota solicitation charge, arrest warrant issued

During Thursday’s hearing, prosecutors said federal authorities in Illinois were “not willing to give us access to him” until his case there is resolved. The bench warrant was issued as a formality.

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Singer R. Kelly leaving the Leighton Criminal Court Building after a hearing in June in his criminal sex abuse cases. A judge in his divorce case on Wednesday ruled that files in his divorce from dancer Andrea Kelly will be open to the public for the firs

Musician R. Kelly departs from the Leighton Criminal Court building after a status hearing in his criminal sexual abuse trial in Chicago on June 26, 2019.

AP Photos

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — An arrest warrant was issued Thursday for singer R. Kelly after he failed to appear at his initial court hearing in a Minnesota case in which he is accused of offering a 17-year-old girl $200 to take off her clothes and dance in 2001.

Kelly, who is jailed in Chicago on sexual abuse and other counts, was charged in Minnesota in August with soliciting the girl after meeting her before a concert in Minneapolis.

Kelly, whose full name is Robert Sylvester Kelly, faces previously filed federal and state charges in New York and Chicago. Prosecutor Judith Cole told Judge Jay Quam during Thursday’s brief hearing that federal authorities in Illinois were “not willing to give us access to him” until his case there is resolved.

The judge then issued a bench warrant as a formality.

Kelly’s attorney Steve Greenberg, who didn’t attend the hearing and isn’t officially registered in the Minnesota case, said they never got notice of it. A spokesman for the county attorney’s office said the summons was sent to Kelly’s last known address.

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