Federal prosecutors announced charges Wednesday against three men accused of threatening and intimidating women who have accused R&B singer R. Kelly of abuse, including one man suspected of setting fire to a vehicle in Florida.
A longtime friend of the indicted singer offered to pay a victim $500,000 to keep her from cooperating in Kelly's prosecution, authorities said, while a manager and adviser of Kelly threatened to release sexually explicit photographs of a woman who sued Kelly.
The Grammy-award winning musician has denied ever abusing anyone and has pleaded not guilty to dozens of state and federal sexual misconduct charges in Illinois, Minnesota, and New York.
The charges range from sexual assault to heading a racketeering scheme aimed at supplying Kelly with girls. Kelly also is accused of having unprotected sex with a girl in 2015 without disclosing he had herpes.
Prosecutors described a third man accused of intimidating witnesses as being related to a former Kelly publicist. They said Michael Williams, 37, of Valdosta, Georgia, traveled to Florida in June and set fire to an SUV parked outside a residence where one of Kelly's victims was staying.
Williams also conducted Internet searches for "the detonation properties of fertilizer and diesel fuel, witness intimidation and witness tampering and countries that do not have extradition with the United States," authorities said in a news release.
A message was sent to Williams' attorney seeking comment.
While the secondary market for NFTs isn't likely to garner the same headlines as multi-million dollar deals, experts agree the future of the crypto art market depends on more than one-off, high-profile purchases.
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey sold his first tweet for more than $2.9 million. The tweet from 2006, which says “just setting up my twttr,” was bought by Bridge Oracle CEO Sina Estavi.
A second mass shooting in a week rattles the nation. What we know, what we don't, and what the political response might be. Plus, the cursed AstraZeneca vaccine facing new questions, upsets rule the day in the women's NCAA tourney and how fat did we get during Covid?
American Cornhole League co-founder and commissioner Stacey Moore spoke to Cheddar about partnering with sports betting giant DraftKings and touted the players in one of the newer televised sports to gain in popularity.
Casinos in Atlantic City are pinning hopes on the rising vaccination rates and the return of live sports to drive people back to in-person gaming.
Rep. Andy Kim of New Jersey talked to Cheddar about his concern that once the news cycle moves on, Americans will forget about the threat that remains against Asian and Asian American people.
Breaking news overnight on the AstraZeneca vaccine. Some new eligibility expansions, the latest from the border, the Cinderella stories after the first weekend of March Madness, and more.
Rep. Mark Takano (D- Calif. 41st District) discusses the need to pass the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act especially in the wake of the shooting deaths of eight people in Atlanta area spas, six of them being women of Asian descent.
Maxine Williams, chief diversity officer at Facebook, spoke to Cheddar from the all-virtual SXSW to discuss Facebook's progress on improving diversity and inclusion within the social media giant.
U.S. health officials are relaxing social distancing recommendations for schools, now saying students can sit as close as 3 feet to each other in classrooms.
