There was little—if any—sympathy on social media for R&B singer R. Kelly who is reportedly too broke to bail himself out of jail after being charged with aggravated criminal sexual abuse.
SEE ALSO: R. Kelly Charged With Aggravated Criminal Sexual Abuse
The disgraced entertainer, whose real name is Robert Kelly, woke up Sunday morning in Illinois’ Cook County jail unable to scrape together $100,000, or 10 percent of his $1 million bond, USA Today reported.
“This is someone who should be wealthy,” Kelly’s attorney Steve Greenberg said Saturday, pointing to bad contracts and mismanagement of money as part of the reasons that Kelly’s pockets are empty.
Prosecutors charged Kelly, 52, on Friday with 10 counts of criminal sexual abuse involving at least three underage victims between 1998 and 2010, with each count carrying a maximum of seven years behind bars.
On Saturday, Cook County Judge John Fitzgerald Lyke Jr. called the allegations against Kelly “disturbing” and said the bond amount equals $250,000 for each of the four people Kelly is charged with sexually abusing.
Kelly is scheduled on Monday for a hearing at which a judge will be assigned to his case and he can enter a plea.
Kelly does not have the career he had more than a decade ago when he faced child pornography charges and was acquitted.
His last song to chart on the Billboard Hot 100 was “PYD” with Justin Bieber in 2013. The fallen star was reportedly being evicted in January from the infamous Chicago recording studio that was at the center of his child porn trial, bringing attention to the state of his finances.
The Chicago Sun-Times reported that a “county judge ordered Kelly evicted from the building. Midwest Commercial Funding sued Kelly last summer, alleging he owed the company nearly $80,000 in back rent. The judge ruled in Midwest Commercial Funding’s favor, court records show, and awarded the company $166,981 while also issuing an ‘order of possession’ for Midwest Commercial Funding.”
Attorney Michael Avenatti recently gave a video to Cook County prosecutors, which could be where Friday’s charges stemmed from. The lawyer said in a statement that he was hired last April in connection to multiple allegations of Kelly sexually assaulting minors. He claimed to have a 45-minute VHS tape as evidence, which, despite its similarities, was not the same video that got Kelly indicted in 2002 — and acquitted in 2008 — for child porn.
Here are some reactions to the news that Kelly is unable to pay his own bail:
