MIAMI (REUTERS) — Grammy-winning rhythm and blues singer R. Kelly was arrested in Miami Wednesday on new child-pornography charges resulting from the discovery of sex pictures found at his Florida home last year, police said.
Kelly, 36, who also faces child pornography charges in Chicago, was picked up in the parking lot of Miami’s luxury Grand Bay Hotel and booked at the local jail.
The arrest was made on a warrant from Polk County, Florida, where investigators said they found digital images during a search of Kelly’s rented home in Davenport, a central Florida town southwest of Orlando, in June during his arrest there on the Chicago charges.
“Twelve digital images were located which depicted sexual activity by a female who was under 18 years of age,” the Polk County Sheriff’s Office said in a written statement. Several images also depicted Kelly involved in sexual conduct with the female minor.”
Kelly’s Chicago attorney, Edward Genson, was not immediately available for comment.
Kelly was charged with 12 counts of possession of child pornography. Bail was set at $12,000, or $1,000 for each of the 12 charges.
Kelly, who has previously settled at least two lawsuits alleging sex with underage girls, won multiple Grammy Awards in 1997 for the gospel-like hit song “I Believe I Can Fly,” from the movie “Space Jam.”
He is known for the explicit carnality of some of his music, with song titles such as “Sex Me,” “Your Body’s Callin’ ” and “Bump ‘n Grind.”
In Chicago, Kelly faces 21 counts of videotaping, producing or soliciting for child pornography stemming from a 26-minute videotape that allegedly depicted the singer in sex acts with a girl who police say was 14 years old at the time.
Kelly, whose given name is Robert, pleaded not guilty and said the man on the tape is not him. Bootleg copies of the tape became hot sellers on street corners.
After his arrest in Florida on the Chicago charges last year, a judge agreed to free him on bail but barred him from having contact with unrelated minors.