STOCKBRIDGE, Ga. — A lawyer representing a couple who appeared in a recent documentary detailing abuse allegations against R. Kelly said prosecutors in Georgia have reached out to him.
Atlanta-based lawyer Gerald Griggs represents Timothy and Jonjelyn Savage, who have said repeatedly that Kelly has kept their daughter from contacting them and has brainwashed her. The Savages, who live in Stockbridge, just south of Atlanta, appeared in Lifetime’s “Surviving R. Kelly” series.
The series, which aired earlier this month, looks at the singer’s history and allegations that he has sexually abused women and girls. Kelly, who turned 52 on Tuesday, has denied wrongdoing.
Savage and his wife have said they haven’t heard from their daughter in about two years.
The Lifetime series reported that their daughter has repeatedly denied that Kelly has done anything wrong and has said she doesn’t want to talk to her family.
Griggs said the Fulton County district attorney’s office reached out to him on Monday seeking contact information for witnesses. Griggs said Fulton County investigators “haven’t confirmed or denied an investigation.”
Chris Hopper, a spokesman, for the Fulton County district attorney’s office, declined to comment.
In Kelly’s hometown of Chicago, Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx addressed reporters Tuesday afternoon after her office had been inundated with calls about the allegations in the documentary, some tied to his Chicago-area home.
Foxx watched the series herself and said she found it “deeply, deeply disturbing.”
“I was sickened by the allegations. I was sickened as a survivor. I was sickened as a mother. I was sickened as a prosecutor,” she said.
But Foxx also said there’s no active investigation of Kelly and launching one would require victims and witnesses.
A Cook County jury acquitted Kelly of all 14 counts of child pornography in 2008. Prosecutors had argued a videotape showed him engaged in graphic sex acts with a girl as young as 13. Kelly and the alleged victim, in her 20s at the time of the trial, denied it was them in the video.
Kelly’s Chicago attorney, Steve Greenberg, said in a phone interview Tuesday evening that the allegations in the Lifetime documentary were false.
“Ten and a half years after he was found innocent (at trial of child pornography charges) and to fill reality TV time — someone comes up with another round of stories,” he said. “No one has found any sex slaves or underage girls because there aren’t any.”
Greenberg also said it was inappropriate for a state’s attorney to characterize allegations she’d seen on TV, prior to charges or even an investigation.
“Who makes their assessment of the evidence based on reality TV?” he said.
Kelly rose from poverty on Chicago’s South Side to become a star singer, songwriter and producer. Despite his legal troubles a decade ago, he still retains a following.
Kelly won a Grammy in 1997 for “I Believe I Can Fly,” and is known for such raunchy hits as “Bump N’ Grind” and “Ignition.”