R. Kelly missed a status hearing in court on Thursday morning after he allegedly denied transportation from Cook County Federal jail to state court. The pretrial hearing still proceeded without him, but Judge Lawrence Flood wanted answers as to why Kelly was a no-show. According to NBCNews defense Lawyer Steve Greenberg denied claims that Kelly declined transportation and said that the real reason was due to issues with transportation. “I don’t want to discuss matters that I discussed with the U.S Marshals Service in open court…suffice to say, the Marshal Service says that moving Mr. Kelly is a large undertaking.”
This would have been Kelly’s first pretrial hearing as he faces federal sex-abuse charges in Illinois and New York where he’s accused of moving victims across state lines to engaging in sexual activity. He has pleaded not guilty to the federal charges and still faces similar state court charges in Cook County, Illinois and Hennepin County, Minnesota. The singer is set again to appear in Chicago state court on September 17, 2019 and Judge Flood is expecting to see Mr. Kelly then.
