Three of R. Kelly’s associates have been charged with threatening some of the women who accused the R&B singer of sexual abuse.
Federal prosecutors announced the arrests of Donnell Russell, Michael Williams, and Richard Arline Jr. on Wednesday, according to the New York Times. They were charged in separate schemes using either bribes or intimidation to prevent the women from cooperating with law enforcement in their case against the singer.
Russell and Arline Jr. are friends of R. Kelly’s. Williams is described as a relative to one of the singer’s former publicists.
Arline, who was labeled by prosecutors as “a self-proclaimed longtime friend of Kelly,” is accused of offering to pay a woman a half-million dollars to not help the prosecution in their case, the Chicago Sun-Times reported. Russell, whom prosecutors called “a self-described manager, adviser, and friend of Kelly,” is accused of threatening to publish revenge porn against a woman who sued Kelly.
Kelly pleaded not guilty to 10 counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse last year. He is accused of sexually abusing four women between 1998 and 2010. Three of the women were between the ages of 13 and 16 at the time of the alleged crimes, and the indictment accused Kelly, 52, of forcing sex on his victims.
Prosecutors said Williams, 37, traveled to Florida in June and lit an SUV on fire outside of a residence where one of Kelly’s alleged victims was staying. He also conducted internet searches about “the detonation properties of fertilizer” and “witness intimidation and witness tampering,” authorities said in a news release reported by the Associated Press.
