NEW YORK CITY — New York prosecutors charged R&B star R. Kelly with bribing an Illinois official to marry singer Aaliyah when she was 15 years old, an unsealed indictment shows.

Brooklyn federal prosecutors accused R. Kelly of paying an unnamed Illinois government worker for a fake ID for "Jane Doe 1" on Aug. 30, 1994, one day before he wed Aaliyah Haughton, court records show. The charges come almost one year after the Lifetime documentary series "Surving R. Kelly" revealed the singer bought the phony identification for Aaliyah.

Aaliyah's parents put an end to the marriage days after the ceremony when they found out about it. Aaliyah, of Brooklyn, never commented on the wedding before she died in a plane crash in 2001, according to reports. R. Kelly was arrested in July and has been held in Chicago's Metropolitan Correctional Center since his arrest on racketeering charges.



New York prosecutors contend that Kelly, 52, sexually abused minors who were forced to wear baggy clothes when not in his presence, told never to look at other men and instructed to refer to the singer as "Daddy," court records show. In January, R. Kelly attorney Steven Greenberg appeared on ABC's "Good Morning America" and said his client did not know Aaliyah was underage when they were married.

