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It is not immediately clear whether the new counts are in addition to the existing charges, or replace some of them, though they add to the growing list of legal troubles facing the embattled singer.
The outlets report that the new felony counts come with a possible sentence of up to 30 years in prison, and that Kelly is due in court June 6.
“We’ll see what the charges are, and we’ll proceed accordingly,” his attorney Steve Greenberg told theSun-Times. “I know this much: it’s old. They’re allegations from years ago.”
Greenbergelaborated on Twitter, writing: “#RKelly was NOT charged with a new case. He was recharged in an existing case, same alleged victim and time (a decade ago) It changes nothing. These are the same conduct, just charged differently, same alleged victim, same time frame, same facts. We expect the same results.”
Neither a rep for Kelly nor a spokesperson for the Cook County State Attorney’s Office immediately returned PEOPLE’s request for comment.
The new charges against the “I Believe I Can Fly” singer, 52, come three months after he was hit with10 counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuseagainst four alleged victims, three of which were specifically referred to as under the age of 17.
TheChicago Sun-Timesnotes that the initials of the victim in the 2010 case match one of the four victims listed in the February charges.
An arrest warrant was issued for Kelly at the time, and hesurrendered to Chicago policehours later.
He wasreleased from jail three days laterafter paying 10 percent of his $1 million bail amount, the Cook County Sheriff confirmed to PEOPLE.
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According to the Associated Press, a judge told Kelly that the hefty sum represented $250,000 for each of his four alleged victims.
One of those four victims filed a civil sexual abuse lawsuit against the singer in February, claiming that he began abusing her in 1998, when she was 16, according to the Chicago Tribune.
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“We don’t care about the lawsuit. The lawsuit means nothing to us,” Kelly’s publicist Darrell Johnson told theSun-Times.
Kelly’s criminal lawyer Steve Greenberg told PEOPLE, “The lawsuit is ridiculous. It’s based on repressed memories. It’ll get vacated and we’ll be back to square one.”
Meanwhile, Kelly was also briefly jailed in early March following a child support hearing in Chicago.
The singer made headlines amid his legal trouble with anemotionally charged interviewwith Gayle King in early March in which he broke down in tears as he denied the allegations facing him.
“Forget how you feel about me! Hate me if you want to, love me if you want, but use your common sense!” he told King during theCBS This Morninginterview. “How stupid would it be for me with my crazy past and what I’ve been through to be like, ‘Oh right now, I think I need to be a monster and hold girls against their will, chain ’em up in my basement and don’t let ’em eat and don’t let ’em out?’”
source: people.com
