1994
A story in Vibe this year revealed that R. Kelly, who was 27 at the time, illegally tied the knot with then-14-year-old Aaliyah in a secret wedding ceremony in Cook County, Chicago. Vibe also found out that Aaliyah lied about her age on her wedding certificate listing herself as 18. Both parties vehemently denied the reports. The marriage annulled in February 1995.
1996
Kelly got himself involved in a nasty fight in Lafayette, Louisiana, at a health club. A certain Christopher Mahoney claimed that Kelly and his entourage assaulted him during a pickup basketball game. Mahoney had 110 stitches on his face. Mike Harson, a Lafayette District Attorney who later researched the case during a civil trial, learnt that Kelly wasn’t responsible for the assault. Kelly’s felony was reduced from second-degree battery charge to simple battery. He was later sentenced to one-year year unsupervised probation.
January 1998
A woman identified as Tiffany Hawkins in 1996, filed charges against R. Kelly for personal injuries and emotional distress which she claimed to have suffered while they dated for 3-years which happened in the early ’90s. Kelly, 24, back in 1991, started a sexual relationship with Hawkins, who was 15 years old. The woman later demanded $10 million in damages, but only received $250,000 when the lawsuit was settled in January 1998.
May 1998
The ‘World’s Greatest’ crooner was arrested on three misdemeanor charges for blasting his music loudly from his vehicle. All the charges were however dropped that month.
February 2002
Things took a turn for the worse when a video showing the singer having sex with an underage girl surfaced online. Although things were not so clear in the video, Kelly was accused of urinating on the girl in the video. Kelly, in an interview with MTV News denied all accusations.
June 2002
The singer was slammed with 21 counts of child pornography. Kelly was arrested and his but his Florida residence was subjected to a search. A digital camera with 12 images of an underage girl was found in the building. The child was the same minor in the videotape that got Kelly indicted in Chicago. Three of the pictures showed Kelly allegedly engaging in disturbing acts with the girl.
2008
Following his charges in Florida being dropped due to lack of probable cause of a search warrant, his counts in the Chicago case were also reduced from 21 to 14. The case finally went to trial in 2008, and Kelly was found not guilty after a day of deliberations.
July 2017
A Buzzfeed report revealed that Kelly has been accused of holding women hostage as part of his abusive “cult.” The story revealed that he housed 6 different women and controlled all aspects of their lives: “from what they eat, how they dress, when they bathe when they sleep, and how they engage in sexual encounters that he records.” One of the women Jocelyn Savage, who was allegedly being held hostage later spoke out publicily about the allegations in an interview wiyh TMZ. “I just want everybody to know, my parents and everybody in the world, that I am totally fine. I’m happy where I’m at, and everything is okay with me…I’ve never been held hostage or anything of that nature.” When asked about her current whereabouts, if she has roommates, or if she’s free to leave, however, all she would say is “I wouldn’t want to speak on that.” In July, Kelly reacted to news labelling them as “crap”.
August 2017
In another story carried by Buzzfeed News, Jerhonda Pace, spoke on how she met Kelly at 15 admitting to being a strong supporter of Kelly’s during his 2008 child pornography case. She lied about her age to get inside the courtroom, thus causing Kelly’s encourage to befriend her. She was invited to Kelly’s home months later, where he allegedly engaged in sexual intercourse with Pace and recorded her without her consent. Pace later sought for a settlement against Kelly, which involved a nondisclosure agreement, and won. In 2012 however, an e-mail to her lawyer’s assistant claiming that she didn’t receive her full amount. She opted to break her nondisclosure as part as her “healing process.”“I know speaking out against Kelly, Kelly could sue me. But I’m really not worried about it anymore. I feel like this is a healing process for me, because I’ve been holding this in for so many years, and to see that he always gets away with it, it’s just not right,” she said. “I’m just going forward with my head held high.” 
Photo Credit: Getty
