Embattled American R&B singer, Robert Kelly popularly known as R. Kelly, has been slammed with new charges of bribing an Illinois government employee on August 30, 1994, in order to obtain a fake I.D. to marry an underage girl in 1994.
The underaged girl named in recent court documents as Jane Doe #1 is widely reported to be deceased singer Aaliyah.
Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn made the accusation against R Kelly on Thursday.
NY Times reports that the fake ID was to be used to obtain a marriage license that listed Aaliyah’s age as 18. R Kelly was 27 at the time, while the license was dated August 31, 1994, the day after he allegedly paid the bribe. Their marriage was later annulled.
The new allegation expands on an existing racketeering indictment filed in New York against the singer that accuses him of sexually exploiting underage girls and coercing them into illegal sexual activity.
This year, R. Kelly, 52, has been criminally charged in several jurisdictions on allegations that he sexually abused minors.
Aaliyah, whose full name was Aaliyah Dana Haughton, died in 2001 in a plane crash at age 22.
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In an interview this year with ABC’s “Good Morning America,” Steven Greenberg, R. Kelly’s lawyer, said his client had “no idea” Aaliyah was 15 when they married.
“My understanding is that she did not claim to be 15, and in order to get married, she had to lie about her age,” Greenberg said at the time.
Greenberg said on Thursday that the new indictment “does not appear to materially alter the landscape.”
