No, R. Kelly is still not cleared in terms of legal battles. His latest accusation doesn’t come from allegedly kidnapping women into a sex chamber. Instead these women claim he owes them something—big.
At the end of January, six individuals - Lizzette Martinez, Lisa Van Allen, Faith Rodgers, Kelly Rogers, Roderick Gartrell and Gem Pratts - filed a lawsuit petition in New York County Supreme Court alleging the singer failed to pay $10.3 million in compensatory damages, per NBC News. The whopping sum came from an August 2023 court order entered against Kelly which was to be paid to the six individuals.
However, the court petition accuses Kelly of not paying them their full amount, the report says. So far, they only received a check for a little over $200,000, attorneys wrote in a December filing. The document says the money only covered “approximately 82 days of interest on Kelly’s liability under the judgment.”
That leaves Kelly to owe a balance of over $9.9 million. Two of the petitioners, Martinez and Van Allen, were featured on Lifetime’s “Surviving R. Kelly” where they recalled meeting the musician when they were just teenagers and ultimately ending up in abusive relationships with him. Later, they appeared in a lawsuit seeking damages for the alleged abuse.
In response to the lawsuit, Kelly’s attorney objected to their client owing them anything and also claimed he was innocent of their abuse allegations.
“This outrageous default judgment was entered contrary to court rules, legal precedent, and basic principles of fairness. A New York court conducted a hearing in Mr. Kelly’s absence and without his knowledge while he was incarcerated in Chicago, awarding a staggering $10,000,000 to plaintiffs for conduct committed by someone else,” they said in a statement via Lawyer Monthly.
Well, part of the reason the payment may have been delayed was because Kelly was already incarcerated for federal child sex convictions in Chicago. He was also found guilty of federal racketeering and sex trafficking charges in New York. He’s still sitting in prison. It’s unsure how the petitioners financial demands will be met while he’s behind bars.