One of the women who’ve accused R. Kelly of sexual abuse won a default judgment on Wednesday in Cook County Circuit Court after the singer and his legal team blew it off.
The accuser, known only as H.W., is one of the four women attached to Kelly’s February arrest when he was hit with 10 charges of aggravated criminal sexual abuse. She filed the civil suit just one day before that arrest.
H.W. explained that she was sexually involved with Kelly from May 1998 to May 1999 while still underage, and it began after she met him at a restaurant celebrating her 16th birthday.
“Kelly had sexual intercourse with the minor plaintiff. The defendant also engaged in oral sex with the minor plaintiff,” the suit stated. “During these repeated incidents, defendant represented to the minor plaintiff that this behavior was appropriate.”
Many years later, H.W., who’s now 36, said she realized how wrong the alleged relationship was, and she had to seek therapy for it.
“Prior to that time, (H.W.) was unable to link in her mind the acts of childhood sexual abuse by the defendant to her fragile emotional and mental state and her problems stemming from that abuse,” the suit read.
According to the Chicago Tribune, Kelly was served a court summons for the civil suit while he was still locked up in Cook County for failing to pay $161,000 in child support to his ex-wife Andrea Kelly. But he never responded to that summons.
“Robert Sylvester Kelly has failed and refused to file an appearance or answer to the complaint even though [he’s] required to do so,” wrote H.W.’s attorneys.
H.W. is seeking $50,000 in damages, which could be granted to her at a May 8 hearing, where she’ll provide additional information to Judge Moira Johnson about the alleged sexual relationship.
Darrell Johnson, Kelly’s publicist, has already responded to the victory and admitted the singer won’t be paying the civil suit any mind.
“We don’t care about the lawsuit. The lawsuit means nothing to us,” he said.
