R. Kelly Faces Bribery Charges Related To Aaliyah Marriage

On Thursday (December 5), a new indictment was filed by a federal prosecutor in New York that alleges R. Kelly bribed an Illinois official to make a fake identification one day before he secretly married a then-15-year-old Aaliyah.

The Chicago Tribune reports that the indictment alleges in August 1994 Kelly instructed someone to bribe the official into creating false identification for a person identified by police as “Jane Doe #1.”

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Kelly, who was 27 at the time, then reportedly married Aaliyah the following day during a secret ceremony. According to the Tribune, the falsified paperwork stated the singer was 18, the required age to marry without parental consent in the state of Illinois.

Aaliyah’s family allegedly had their marriage annulled after finding out about it.

The new indictment comes after Kelly was charged over the summer in a racketeering scheme to sexually abuse girls. He’ll stand trial on one of the four sexual abuse cases in September 2020.