MINNEAPOLIS, Minn (CelebrityAccess) — A warrant was issued on Thursday for R&B star R. Kelly after he failed to post for a court date in Minneapolis on prostitution charges from a 2001 incident.
According to the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Kelly was slated to appear in Hennepin County District Court on Thursday afternoon but neither he or an attorney representing him was present for the hearing.
County attorney spokesman Chuck Laszewski told the newspaper that as a result, he will likely be required to appear in court in Minnesota after his current federal charges, which he is on trial for in Illinois, have been resolved.
In the Minnesota case, Kelly was charged with two counts of soliciting prostitution after he was alleged to have paid a 17-year-old girl in 2001 to strip and dance for him. Kelly was also accused of helping the girl to remove her clothes and fondling her but was not accused of sexual intercourse.
Steve Greenberg, an attorney for Kelly, previously said that charges Kelly faces in Minnesota are not merited by the alleged crimes.
“The underlying facts, even if you take them at face value, don’t cry out for prosecution,” Greenberg said in August when the charges were announced. Greenberg went on to suggest that Kelly’s accuser in the case was merely seeking publicity.
“It’s just a total perversion of the entire system and a waste of time,” Greenberg said.
Kelly is currently in federal custody, facing a raft of charges that include kidnapping, sending child pornography across state lines and obstruction of justice over alleged hush-money payments.
