R. Kelly charged with soliciting 17-year-old girl in Minnesota
R. Kelly, the 52-year-old singer, has been charged with prostitution and solicitation in Minnesota after allegedly inviting a 17-year-old girl to his hotel room and paying her $200 to dance naked with him in 2001. Each felony charge is punishable by up to five years in prison.
A Minnesota judge issued a bench warrant for the arrest of R&B singer R. Kelly on Thursday after the musician failed to appear for an initial court hearing in a case in which he's accused of offering a 17-year-old girl $200 to take off her clothes and dance in 2001.
Kelly -- who is jailed in Chicago on sexual abuse and other charges -- was charged in Minnesota in August for allegedly soliciting the girl after meeting her before a concert in Minneapolis.
R. KELLY CHARGED WITH SOLICITING A MINOR IN MINNESOTA
During Thursday's brief hearing, prosecutor Judith Cole told Judge Jay Quam that federal authorities in Illinois were "not willing to give us access to him" until his case there is resolved. The judge then issued a bench warrant as a formality.
R. KELLY'S FEDERAL TRIAL IN CHILD PORNOGRAPHY CASE IN CHICAGO SET FOR APRIL
Kelly attorney Steve Greenberg, who didn't attend the hearing and isn't officially registered in the Minnesota case, said neither he nor his client ever got notice of it. Greenberg also insisted on Twitter that neither he nor Kelly was "served with any notice of court proceedings."
"I did not resist his appearance, nor did he," Greenberg added.
"He is in custody," Greenberg continued. "It is the prosecutor who must obtain a court order for #RKelly to appear, and it is the prosecutor who must go get him if, as here, he is in custody elsewhere. They do not just give him a travel pass from federal custody."
A spokesman for the county attorney's office said the summons was sent to Kelly's last known address.
A rep for Kelly did not immediately respond to Fox News' request for comment.
The Associated Press contributed to this report
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