Women: We Went to R. Kelly Concert, Ended Up Victims

Latresa Scaff, Rochelle Washington say they were minors when he made sexual advances
By Kate Seamons,  Newser Staff
Posted Feb 22, 2019 5:03 AM CST
Women: We Went to R. Kelly Concert, Ended Up Victims
Attorney Gloria Allred holds up a picture of Latresa Scaff, left, and Rochelle Washington, posing in front of a picture of R. Kelly, on the night they claim they became victims of his sexual advances during a news conference in New York, Thursday, Feb. 21, 2019.   (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

Latresa Scaff and Rochelle Washington said "many people" knew the then-teens were with R. Kelly one night more than two decades ago. The women, who were about 16 and 15, had gone to an R. Kelly/LL Cool J concert in Baltimore in 1995 or 1996, and say that while at an after-party at a club, R. Kelly singled them out and got them a cab to his hotel room, where they believed there would be another party, reports the AP. Once there but before the singer arrived, the excited girls say they called an area radio station and went on-air saying they were with R. Kelly. What the women say happened next is why they appeared at a Thursday news conference with lawyer Gloria Allred. Scaff, now 40, says when R. Kelly entered the room his penis was exposed. He requested a threesome and Washington, now 39, says she declined and went into the bathroom, per the New York Times.

Scaff says they had earlier been given pot and alcohol by members of the singer's crew, and were offered cocaine though they declined it. NPR has Scaff's description of what happened next: "When Kelly was alone with me, he asked me to perform oral sex on him. I was under the influence ... and did it. He then had sexual intercourse with me even though I did not have the capacity to consent." It was their only encounter with him, and the women say they decided to go public now "because I want to encourage other victims who I know must be out there to come forward as well," per Scaff. Allred said the women have told their story to New York prosecutors. R. Kelly, 52, has repeatedly denied having sex with minors. (Michael Avenatti last month claimed to have video evidence against the singer.)

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