R. Kelly’s Publicist, Lawyer & Assistant Reportedly Cut Ties With Him

R. Kelly’s Publicist, Lawyer & Assistant Reportedly Cut Ties With Him

Several members of R. Kelly’s inner circle have cut ties with the singer, it was revealed today. His spokesperson, Trevian Kutti, confirmed to Pitchfork that she no longer works with Kelly as of April 16. Additionally, BBC3 reports reports that both Kelly’s entertainment attorney, Linda Mensch, and his assistant, Diana Copeland, are no longer working with him. (Mensch also confirmed her resignation to Pitchfork.)

These announcements arrive in the wake of several recent sexual misconduct allegations against Kelly. Earlier this month, a Dallas woman began taking legal action against the singer, claiming he knowingly gave her a sexually transmitted disease during a relationship that began when she was 19. It followed accusations made in a BBC3 documentary that Kelly had been “grooming” an underage girl to be his sex “pet” earlier this year. The allegation was made by Kitti Jones, one of three women who spoke with reporter Jim DeRogatis last year for a Buzzfeed investigation that claimed Kelly had been holding women against their will in a “cult”-like environment.

In the BBC3 documentary, Jones said that, while she was dating Kelly, he introduced her to a girl whom he had allegedly “trained” since she was 14. “I saw that she was dressed like me, that she was saying the things I’d say and her mannerisms were like mine,” Jones said. “That’s when it clicked in my head that he had been grooming me to become one of his pets. He calls them his pets.”

Last year, Jones told her story of Kelly’s history of alleged physical abuse and sexual coercion. Another accuser, Jerhonda Pace, claimed Kelly has a history of abuse and sex with minors.

Kelly was acquitted of child pornography charges in 2008. He was accused of making a sex tape with an underage woman.