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Two more women accused R&B artist R. Kelly of sexual misconduct during a Thursday press conference in New York City.
Latresa Scaff, 40, and Rochelle Washington, 39, allege that R. Kelly, whose given name is Robert Kelly, sexually abused and harassed the two women when they were minors after a concert in Baltimore, Maryland, around 1995 or 1996, The New York Times reports.
“I am speaking out because I want to encourage other victims who I know must be out there to come forward as well,” Scaff said.
Washington added, “I want victims to know it’s not their fault.”
The two women, represented by attorney Gloria Allred, said they attended an R. Kelly and LL Cool J concert when they were 15 and 16 years old. At an after-party, the two women said Kelly handpicked the girls to come backstage where they were allegedly given drugs and alcohol.
Scaff and Washington said Kelly’s handlers invited the two girls back to Kelly’s hotel room. When the two girls arrived, they were so excited to be in Kelly’s hotel room that they called a public radio station while they waited for the singer.
“Many people heard us,” Scaff said, according to NYT.
One of Kelly’s security guards instructed the girls to “pull up [their] dresses,” The Cut reports. The two women said that Kelly then entered the room with his penis exposed and asked the girls to have a threesome with him.
When Washington, 15 at the time, declined to participate, Kelly allegedly asked, “You’re not gonna please me?” Washington said she hid in the bathroom.
Kelly then asked Scaff to perform oral sex on him, which she did. He later had sex with her. Scaff, who was 16 at the time, said she was under the influence of drugs and alcohol and was not able to consent. The age of consent in Maryland is 16.
Kelly did not immediately respond to HuffPost’s request for comment.
The R&B singer’s stardom has been marked by dozens of sexual misconduct allegations dating back to 1994, when he married R&B singer Aaliyah when she was 15 and he was 27.
In 2008, R. Kelly was acquitted of child pornography charges after a video showed him allegedly having sex with and urinating on a 14-year-old girl. He has agreed to multiple out-of-court settlements with women who accused him of sexual assault, including one who said Kelly had sex with her when she was 15.
R. Kelly’s representatives have continually dismissed the claims as a “conspiracy.”
Lifetime’s “Surviving R. Kelly” docuseries, which highlights the R&B singer’s history of psychologically and sexually abusing young women, recently brought renewed attention to the accusations and increased pressure to pursue criminal charges. Prosecutors in Georgia announced this week that they are investigating some of the allegations discussed in the docuseries.
Last week, high-profile attorney Michael Avenatti claimed he gave prosecutors a videotape that he said shows Kelly sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl. Avenatti said the tape was recorded in Chicago in the late 1990s. Although it reportedly appears the girl actively participated in the sexual acts, she would have been unable to give legal consent at 14.
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