Journalist Jim DeRogatis received an anonymous fax that R Kelly, born Robert Kelly, had been accused of sex crimes by underage women. On Dec. 24, 1996, he was sued by Tiffany “Tia” Hawkins, an aspiring singer in Chicago who started having sex with Kelly in 1991; she was 15 and he was 24. The relationship ended in December 1994 when she was 18. She tried to kill herself. In January 2008, according to the Chicago Sun-Times, Kelly settled the lawsuit with Hawkins for $250K, a fraction of her $10M suit.
In January 2001, a videotape was anonymously sent to the Sun-Times showing a Kelly-ish looking man having sex with a young woman. On Feb. 8, 2002, DeRogatis received another video that allegedly showed Kelly having sex with an underage girl. He was reportedly sued by several women including Tracy Sampson, Patrice Jones, and Montna Woods and on June 5, 2002, he was indicted in Chicago on 21 counts of making child pornography. On June 6, he pleaded not guilty and posted bail with 750 $100 bills. On the same day, the state of Florida indicted him on another 12 counts of making child pornography and later dropped the case in March 2004. He was acquitted on all counts in his child pornography trial in Chicago on June 13, 2008.
