R. Kelly Victim Heather Williams to Dip into Singer’s Royalties That Made Him $100M Fortune to Pay off His Sexual Assault Verdict
The successful pop singer of the 1990s, R. Kelly fell to rock bottom when his wrongdoings hit the headlines. After getting away with a child p*rnography accusation over a decade ago, several repeated accusations of sexual abuse with young adults and minors shocked the world. Ultimately, his heinous crimes got noticed as he was found guilty of s*x trafficking and racketeering in New York.
Already serving his 30-year imprisonment term due to being guilty of charges in New York, the Illinois Supreme Court granted her victim, who won a $4 million judgment against him, the priority at his royalties.
R. Kelly’s Victim Granted The First Dip into His Royalty Account with Sony Music
Robert Sylvester Kelly, who is better known as R. Kelly shocked the world with his disgraceful acts that eventually dragged him down. While he continues to be embroiled in legal lawsuits, the Illinois Supreme Court ruled that his victim, Heather Williams who filed a civil lawsuit in 2019 against him should be given priority access to his royalties.
Williams in her lawsuit claimed that the infamous pop star lured her into his studio promising her that she could get featured in a music video. Being just only 16 years old, he repeatedly had s*x with her. The lawsuit went on for over a year with the victim winning the judgment of $4 million on those claims.
On Thursday, the court permitted the victim to authorize priority access to his royalty account with Sony, which was valued at $1.5 million three years ago. He is also in debt for another $3.5 million over a lawsuit filed by Midwest Commercial Funding, a property manager against him over unpaid rent for their Chicago studio.
As per the court, she should be given priority access to the royalties the former earned through his music as she was the first to properly demand the money from Sony. This decision supported the lower court’s decision in which the music label was asked to give “any funds currently in Kelly’s royalty account” to Williams and continue doing so until the judgment was paid off.
Lawyer of R. Kelly Looking to Overturn The $4 Million Judgement
Also Read: In One of The Most Disgusting Allegations, R. Kelly Allegedly Made Women He Slept With Eat His Sh*t
After Thursday’s decision of the state high court, his lawyer, Jennifer Bonjean is looking out for every opportunity to overturn the $4 million judgment ruling. She shared with Billboard that the judgment was ruled when her client failed to respond stating Williams “never should have been entered.”
She continued,
“I’ve never in my career seen such a flouting of the rules to deny him even the opportunity to defend these civil cases, even when the courts were fully aware that Kelly was incarcerated, unrepresented at points, and facing multiple criminal indictments,”
While the victim is being prioritised in this case, it is still yet to know whether she will be able to get several additional monetary penalties which the singer is entitled to give to his victims. Following his three decades of imprisonment, R. Kelly was ordered to pay more than $480,000 in fines and restitution with an additional $42,000 over child p*rnography charges in Illinois last year.
Source: Billboard
