R. Kelly is facing yet another charge on his long list of criminal indictments, and is now accused of allegedly seeking a fake I.D. for the late singer Aaliyah, who was only 15 when she reportedly married the then 27 year old back in 1994. These additional charges were added by prosecutors in Brooklyn, who have already indicted Kelly on several charges which include: racketeering, kidnapping and sexual exploitation of a child.
According to a report by The New York Times, Kelly allegedly bribed an Illinois government employee in order to procure a fake ID for the late singer. These bribery charges were reportedly added to the racketeering charges that he was indicted for earlier this year. Steve Greenberg, Kelly’s attorney, had previously claimed that Kelly had “no idea,” that the singer was a minor at their time of marriage.
Kelly is currently facing numerous charges in three other states, which include New York, Illinois and Minnesota. He is facing 13 charges in Chicago, Illinois where he is accused of sexually abusing minors and conspiring to obstruct justice, 11 charges in Cook County, Illinois, and further child prostitution charges in Hennepin County, Minnesota.
Kelly was responsible for helping Aaliyah achieve her first taste of mainstream success with the release of her debut album Age Ain’t Nothing but a Number, which debuted in 1994, the year of this accusation. The singer eventually moved away from Kelly’s influence for her next album, and signed a deal with a new record label, Atlantic, where she debuted her sophomore album One in a Million.
Aaliyah was killed with eight other in 2001 during a plane crashed in the Bahamas, where the performer was filming the music video for “Rock The Boat.” Luis Morales III, the plane’s pilot, was reportedly unlicensed at the time of the accident, with toxicology tests revealing that he had traces of cocaine and alcohol in his system.