R. Kelly was back in court Thursday in Chicago, pleading not guilty to 11 new counts of sexual abuse, as his lawyer described him as hard at work on his music and feeling "optimistic" about his case.

Nicole Blank Becker, one of Kelly's defense attorneys, told USA TODAY that Kelly is working on his music every night in the studio.

"He’s got good days and bad days," Becker said. "The whole world is coming at him, everywhere he turns someone is coming up with a story (about him). He's definitely optimistic but he's human, he's got his bad days just like anyone else would."

The singer, 52, arrived at the courthouse Thursday morning, wearing a light gray suit and accompanied by his entourage and legal team, for an arraignment on the charges brought last week by the office of Cook County State's Attorney Kim Foxx.

There are now 18 charges of felony sex crimes involving four accusers against Kelly in Illinois. The new charges include four alleging aggravated criminal sexual assault. Each one carries a maximum prison term of 30 years.

The new counts involve one of the same accusers cited in his indictment on 10 counts of sexual abuse in February.

Becker told USA TODAY that three of the counts in the original indictment involving the accuser identified by the initials J.P. were dropped by prosecutors and were refiled with additional charges in the new allegations. That brings the total to 18 charges, Becker said.

Prosecutors did not ask the judge to raise the bond amount for Kelly during Thursday’s hearing in a Cook County courthouse.

Kelly stood and listened to the judge describe the charges, with his hands folded in front of him. When the judged asked if he understood, Kelly, responded, “Yes, sir.”

Kelly exited the courthouse about 20 minutes later without speaking to reporters.

Steve Greenberg, a Chicago-based criminal defense attorney who heads Kelly's legal team, echoed the sentiments he expressed last week: The charges are based on the "same case, same facts, same bond and same evidence" and therefore he expects it to yield "the same results" in Kelly's favor.

Kelly pleaded not guilty in February to 10 counts of aggravated sexual abuse involving three girls and one woman over roughly 10 years starting in the late 1990s.

Attorney Michael Avenatti, who says he represents at least one of the accusers in the case against Kelly, told the Associated Press last week that the new charges pertain to J.P., one of the three minors in the group of four accusers alleging abuse in February.

(Avenatti has himself since been indicted on three sets of federal charges in two states, including allegations of extortion and stealing from clients.)

According to the Associated Press, Greenberg told reporters said after the hearing that he couldn't speculate as to why prosecutors brought the new charges.

"It's the same case. It's just that they've just changed what they've charged him with," Greenberg said.

This echoes what Greenberg said on Twitter last week: "#RKelly was NOT charged with a new case. He was recharged in an existing case, same alleged victim and time (a decade ago) It changes nothing."

Becker said she couldn't explain prosecutors' moves either.

"What I do know is that it's very strange," she told USA TODAY. "If these (11 counts) are the proper charges, why didn’t charge him like this the first time around?"

Tandra Simonton, spokeswoman for Foxx's office, declined to comment to USA TODAY because the case is pending.

Kelly is due back in court on June 26 for a status hearing in the case.

According to The Chicago Sun-Times, which published the new court documents last week, the 11 new counts against Kelly are: Four counts of aggravated criminal sexual assault, two counts of criminal sexual assault by force, two counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse and three counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse against a victim who was between the ages of 13 and 17 at the time of her assault. Three of the four women from the original indictment were minors at the time.

According to the new indictment, the first eight counts are from encounters that allegedly occurred between Jan. 1 and Jan. 31, 2010. Three others pertain to alleged encounters between May 1, 2009, and Jan. 31, 2010.

Among other things, prosecutors allege that Kelly used force or threatened to do so to pressure the accuser into sex or to perform oral sex on him. Since she was underage at the time, the statute of limitations for bringing charges was extended to 20 years from her 18th birthday, they wrote.

Timeline: R. Kelly's history of sex-abuse arrests, indictments and lawsuits

For about two decades, Robert Sylvester Kelly has faced multiple allegations of sexual abuse of women and girls, including sex with underage girls and accusations that he trapped female fans in a "sex cult" that cut them off from their families and subjected them to degrading abuse.

He has been charged with a sex crime only once, in Chicago, and was acquitted in 2008. Then, in January, a six-part film began airing on Lifetime, "Surviving R. Kelly," in which women came forward on camera to accuse Kelly of shocking abuse.

Saying she was "sickened" by the allegations, Foxx called a press conference in January to solicit accusers and witnesses to come forward. In February, she announced the state indictments of Kelly.

Soon after, suggestions emerged that Kelly also was under parallel investigations by federal authorities in Illinois and in New York.

Contributing: Jayme Deerwester, The Associated Press

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