Singer R Kelly Jailed Over Missing Child Support

R Kelly mug shot

R&B singer R. Kelly was arrested for a second time in recent weeks on Wednesday - this time for failure to pay child support - hours after lashing out in a television interview against charges that he had sexually assaulted teenage girls.

According to Reuters, Kelly was taken into custody in Chicago for owing more than $161,000 in child support to his three children with ex-wife Andrea Kelly.

The singer must pay the full amount to get out of jail, Cook County Sheriff’s spokesman Sam Randall said, following a court hearing over a Wednesday deadline for the money to be paid.

Andrea Kelly was not at the hearing and her attorney declined to comment. Kelly’s next hearing in the child support case is on March 13 and his next court date on the sex abuse charges is March 22.

Kelly, 52, pleaded not guilty in February to charges that he sexually assaulted three teenage girls and a fourth woman. The charges were brought after seven women including his ex-wife, appeared on a Lifetime television documentary and accused him of emotional and sexual abuse.

He spent a weekend in jail on the sex charges before being released on $100,000 bail on Feb. 25.

Rising from poverty on Chicago’s South Side, Kelly broke into the R&B scene in 1993 with his first solo album, “12 Play,” which produced such popular sex-themed songs as “Your Body’s Callin’” and “Bump N’ Grind.” He has written numerous hits for himself and other artists, including Celine Dion, Michael Jackson and Lady Gaga. One of his best-known hits is “I Believe I Can Fly.”