A woman who accused R. Kelly of coercing her into a sexual relationship when she was 16 has been granted first dibs on collecting at least part of her multimillion-dollar judgment from the singer. On Thursday (March 23), the Illinois Supreme Court granted Heather Williams priority access to Kelly’s Sony Music royalty account, which was last valued at $1.5 million in 2020, according to Billboard.
In a civil suit filed in 2019, Williams claimed that she met the Chicago native in 1998. Similar to other alleged underage victims, the crooner lured her to his studio, where he promised to put her in a music video. Instead, she found herself in an abusive sexual relationship. Three years ago, the woman was awarded a $4 million default judgment when Kelly failed to respond to the complaint. Next in line to access the fund is property manager Midwest Commercial Funding, which won a $3.5 million ruling over unpaid studio rent in Chicago.
As previously reported by REVOLT, the disgraced singer was sentenced to 30 years in prison and ordered to pay a $100,000 fine after he was convicted of sex trafficking and racketeering. “Although sex was certainly a weapon that you used, this is not a case about sex. It’s a case about violence, cruelty and control,” said New York U.S. District Judge Ann Donnelly as she doled out the sentence in June 2022.
For decades, the award-winning singer evaded steep punishments for allegations of luring underage girls and boys for sex. However, the accusations that were once swept under the rug resurfaced when several alleged victims came forward to tell their stories in the Surviving R. Kelly docuseries.”
Kelly was already set to live out the rest of his days behind bars when, last month, he was sentenced to 20 additional years for sex crimes related to a case in Chicago. As he learned his fate for the second time, the songwriter was lambasted for being a sexual predator who went to great lengths to cover up his wrongdoings.