R. Kelly Told Woman ‘You Can Tell Daddy If You’re 16,’ Lawsuit Alleges

Two months into texting and videochatting with a 19 year old, R Kelly allegedly flew her out to New York and visited her in the hotel room he paid for.
"You know, if you’re really, you know, 16, that you can tell daddy, right?" he reportedly said to the young woman who looked "about 14, 15, or 16," after he instructed her to remove her clothes.
These disturbing details are part of a suit filed Monday by Faith Rodgers, 20, in Manhattan court against Robert Sylvester Kelly (the performer’s full name), 51, alleging sexual battery false imprisonment, and failure to disclose a sexually transmitted disease, The New York Times reports.
A criminal complaint of the same matter was filed a month ago in Texas alleging that the singer had knowingly given her an STD and tried to groom her for his alleged “sex cult.” By filing the civil suit, Rodgers has now revealed her identity.

Lydia C. Hills, one of Rodgers’ lawyers, confirmed to The New York Times that Rodgers is the formerly anonymous woman who filed a complaint against Kell under the name “Jane Doe” in April and alleged that the singer had “knowingly and intentionally” given her herpes. Rodgers’ earlier complaint also accused Kelly of grooming her for inclusion in his alleged sex cult.

Kelly’s camp denied those allegations last month, with a representative for Kelly telling the Huffington Post that he “categorically denies all claims and allegations” related to that complaint.

In her first televised interview with “CBS This Morning” on Tuesday, Rodgers detailed her year-long relationship with Kelly, who she says she first met after he performed in San Antonio last March. The two exchanged phone numbers and spent months building a relationship through phone calls, text messages, and FaceTime for two months, Rodgers claimed, until Kelly flew her out to New York for one of his shows and paid for her hotel room. Kelly showed up at her room the next morning, Rodgers said.

“He turns on all the lights and he’s like, ‘Take off your clothes.’ And he says it, you know, with authority in his voice. Not just, you know, he’s demanding me to do this,” she recalled. “And I didn’t take off my clothes because why would I? I just wasn’t ready. Sex isn’t something, you know, I’m ready for.”

Rodgers said she ultimately submitted to having sex, even though she didn’t want to.

“He has this type of, like, intimidation right off the bat. You know? So I was just waiting for it to be over,” she explained.

Kelly recorded their sexual encounter using his iPad without her consent, Rodgers said. Afterward, Kelly began asking her about her age, Rodgers said.

Rodgers, who was 19 at the time, contends that Kelly “pursues teenage/underage” girls and “lures” them into engaging in sexual acts, CBS News reports. Rodgers also claimed that Kelly routinely kept her locked in a van, on one occasion leaving her in a car with the child lock on for eight hours. Rodgers believes Kelly wanted to include her in a group of women that he lives and travels with, presumably members of the alleged “sex cult” that Buzzfeed revealed in a report last year.

“He goes on to tell me that he raises five women. Some of them had been with him for 15 years,” Rodgers said. “And he basically was trying to make it seem like it was a family thing. He described these women as being his family. Then he goes on to tell me, ‘You know what? I love you because you remind me of them.’”

The singer’s lawyer Linda Mensch told Us Weekly shortly after the publication of Buzzfeed’s expose last year, “Mr. Kelly unequivocally denies such allegations and will work diligently and forcibly to pursue his accusers and clear his name.”

Rodgers is seeking unspecified damages and is not seeking a settlement, CBS News reports; her lawyers say they will be seeking a jury trial. Rodgers told “CBS This Morning” that she filed the lawsuit in order to help girls who may run into Kelly in the future.

“And he’s gonna do the exact same thing,” she said. “But it could get worse. You know, I chose to walk away. What about the ones who don't walk away?”

Representatives for Kelly declined to comment on the suit when questioned by CNN.

Sexual misconduct allegations have surrounded Kelly for decades. The “Ignition” singer was accused of recording himself having sex with an underage girl in 2003, ABC News reports. He was acquitted on 14 counts of child pornography in 2008 after the alleged victim refused to testify, according to The New York Times. Kelly also had a judge throw out his breach-of-contract lawsuit earlier this month after he failed to show up in court on multiple occasions and his attorneys quit, the Chicago Tribune reports.

Spotify announced earlier this month that they would no longer promote Kelly’s music, citing a new public hate content and hateful conduct policy. Meanwhile, the Time’s Up Women of Color coalition lent their support to the #MuteRKelly movement, which calls for the singer to be held responsible for his history of alleged sexual abuse. In a statement to Variety and Rolling Stone, Kelly expressed his support for the Time’s Up movement but referred to the proposed boycott of his music as an “attempted public lynching of a black man who has made extraordinary contributions to our culture.”

The Grio reports that a Facebook video of Kelly claiming that he will still produce music despite the “40 million motherf*ckers hating” might be related to the recent bout of allegations against him. In the short clip, Kelly comments that it’s “too late, they shoulda did this sh*t 30 years ago.”

[Photo: R. Kelly performs at Foxwoods Resort Casino on July 19, 2015. By Dexter A. Jones/Getty Images]