R. Kelly News: A singer absent in a Minnesota court under charge of soliciting

R. Kelly In 2001, in a Minnesota case, he was accused of offering a 17-year-old girl $ 200 to undress and dance. Kelly, jailed in Chicago for sexual assault and other charges, was charged in Minnesota in August for soliciting the girl after meeting her before a concert in Minneapolis.

He was expected at Hennepin County Court at 1:30 pm, according to CBS Minnesota.

Kelly, whose full name is Robert Sylvester Kelly, faces charges previously filed by the federal and state governments in New York and Chicago. Attorney Judith Cole told Judge Jay Quam during Thursday's brief hearing that the federal authorities of Illinois were "unwilling to give us access to him" until his case be solved.

The judge then issued an arrest warrant as a formality.

Kelly's lawyer, Steve Greenberg, who did not attend the hearing and is not officially registered in the Minnesota case, said he had never been informed of this. A spokesman for the county attorney's office said the summons had been sent to Kelly's last known address.

CBS Minnesota notes that the no-show may be exactly what happens to the entire file. The Hennepin County Attorney, Mike Freeman, previously stated that he would not be disappointed if this case was never tried in Minnesota, as long as Kelly was serving a sentence for the alleged crimes that he would have committed elsewhere.

Judge Jay Quam said that the arrest warrant he issued against Kelly would be served at a time when it "could return to Minnesota to face the charges."