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R. Kelly is facing a lawsuit after a 20-year-old woman accused the R&B artist of sexual battery, false imprisonment and failure to disclose a sexually transmitted disease.
READ MORE: Time’s Up movement sets sights on R. Kelly
The lawsuit comes after a complaint filed at the Dallas Police Department in April by Faith Rogers. Rogers, a Texas native, said that she met the 51-year-old singer in March 2016 after one of his concerts in San Antonio. According to CNN, Kelly illegally supplied Rogers — who was 19 at the time — with alcohol on their first encounter.
After a few weeks of phone contact, Kelly arranged for Rogers to fly out to New York for one of his concerts. When the singer met up with Rogers in a hotel room, he “initiated unwanted sexual contact”, according to reports in the New York Times.
Following this encounter, Rogers stayed in contact with Kelly. She alleges that throughout the course of their relationship, Kelly locked her in rooms, intimidated her, filmed her without permission, and infected her with herpes without telling her.
In an interview on Tuesday with CBS This Morning news show, Rogers said that Kelly made her “submit” to sexual acts and made her say and do things against her will, including him insisting that she call him “daddy.” Rogers said that she is filing the lawsuit in order to help protect others against Kelly.
“I want it for girls like me who are going to run into him in the future and he’s going to do the exact same thing, but it could get worse, you know?” Rogers said to CBS.
“I chose to walk away, but what about the ones who don’t walk away?”
This incident is just one of many that Kelly has been accused of in the course of his illustrious career. According to Buzzfeed reports, Kelly allegedly ran a sex cult where six women were reported to have been his “slaves”. In 2008 he was acquitted of child pornography charges.
Although R. Kelly has not faced any legal consequences, social media users that are part of the #MeToo movement and companies are taking action against the artist for his alleged acts of sexual misconduct. On May 11, Spotify created a new policy preventing advertising of artists who have displayed malicious or hateful behaviours. Additionally, a social media campaign #MuteRKelly has called on companies who have relationships with the singer to stop promoting and interacting with him. A concert in Chicago was cancelled due to public outcry.
R. Kelly has previously denied allegations against him, including Roger’s formal complaint against him.