R. Kelly Pleads Not Guilty To Bribing Illinois Official To Marry Aaliyah
R. Kelly is denying allegations that he bribed an Illinois official to marry 15-year-old singer Aaliyah. The jailed R&B star pleaded not guilty yesterday to criminal charges in New York in a Chicago federal courtroom. The arraignment was held nearly two weeks after a federal indictment in Brooklyn accused Kelly of directing someone to bribe a public official into making a fake ID for an unnamed female a day before he married the late singer Aaliyah in 1994. Kelly is in federal custody awaiting trial on the New York charges as well as a separate indictment brought by federal prosecutors in Chicago. He was also charged in Cook County with four separate indictments accusing him of sexual misconduct over more than a decade involving several underage victims.