R Kelly taken into police custody after failing to pay child support of $161,000 to former wife

Singer R Kelly has been taken into custody for failure to pay $161,000 in child support and was jailed Wednesday evening in Chicago. The decision came hours after the singer tearfully and angrily denied allegations of sexual abuse in a TV interview.

[caption id=“attachment_6214221” align=“alignnone” width=“825”] Source: Twitter[/caption] Supporters were working to get Kelly, 52, out of jail by March 13, the next date of hearing in the child support case, CNN reported. Hours later, Kelly went to the child-support hearing “expecting to leave. He didn’t come here to go to jail,” said his publicist, Darryll Johnson, who said Kelly was prepared to pay $50,000 to $60,000.

According to court documents, Kelly owed more than $169,000 in unpaid child support to his ex-wife Andrea Kelly, and their three children as of February 6. The court ordered Kelly to make a monthly payment of $20,833 on 8 January, 2009, but Kelly failed to show up to that hearing, the documents state. To avoid being held in contempt of court, a judge ordered Kelly to pay $161,663 by Wednesday.

Kelly is out on bail of $100,000 and will be in court for the child support case on 13 March.

The 52-year-old recording artist has been trailed for decades by allegations that he violated underage girls and women and held some as virtual slaves. Kelly has consistently denied any sexual misconduct and was acquitted of child pornography charges in 2008. Those charges centered on a graphic video that prosecutors said showed him having sex with a girl as young as 13. R Kelly has pleaded not guilty to 10 counts of aggravated sexual abuse.

(With inputs from The Associated Press)