Two additional women have come forward to accuse musician R Kelly of sexual abuse.
The women, Latresa Scaff and Rochelle Washington, said they were teenagers in Baltimore, Maryland, when Kelly brought them back to his hotel after a concert, exposed himself to them and had sex with Scaff, who was under the influence of alcohol and marijuana.
They spoke publicly for the first time Thursday at a news conference in Manhattan with their high-profile attorney, Gloria Allred. They planned to meet later Thursday with investigators from the office of the US attorney for the eastern district of New York, Allred said.
“It took a heavy toll on me,” said Scaff, now 40. “I feel like I need to be here today to tell what happened to me, because of all the other victims that were affected by it as well.”
Scaff said she was 16 when she and Washington, then 15, went to a concert at a Baltimore arena where Kelly performed with LL Cool J. At an after party at the Baltimore Grand nightclub, they said they were given marijuana and alcohol. Kelly then asked them back to his hotel, where they waited for him in his suite.
A man in Kelly’s entourage asked the girls to pull up their dresses before Kelly entered the room, Scaff said. The singer entered the room with his penis out, asked the girls to dance for him, and put his hand under Scaff’s dress and fondled her, she said. He asked the girls to have a threesome with him, but Washington said no and retreated to a bathroom, her friend said.
“When Kelly was alone with me, he asked me to perform oral sex on him. I was under the influence of marijuana and alcohol and did it. He then had sexual intercourse with me even though I did not have the capacity to consent,” Scaff said.
Numerous women have accused the R&B singer of violent and controlling behavior, including allegations he had sex with girls as young as 14 and brainwashed young women in what their parents described as a “cult”.
A recently aired documentary, Surviving R Kelly, featured testimonies by a number of women and prompted new investigations into the singer.
Allred said the women were speaking to the US attorney’s office in New York at her recommendation, but did not elaborate on what the office may be investigating.
Kelly has previously denied any wrongdoing. He recorded a song last year professing his innocence, singing: “I’m so falsely accused.”
His attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the new allegations.
The women said they never saw or heard from Kelly again after they left the hotel.
“I can’t get out of my mind what I saw and what happened,” said Washington, now 39. “Now, being a mother with children, I feel I was taken advantage of when I was a teenager.”
Allred represents other R Kelly accusers, including one who said he wrote a letter threatening to reveal embarrassing details of her sexual history if she didn’t drop a lawsuit accusing him of sexual abuse.
“It is time for you to face the consequences of what you have done in our system of justice,” she said, addressing Kelly.