One of R. Kelly’s live-in girlfriends, Joycelyn Savage, who supposedly set up an account on online subscription service Patreon to accuse Kelly of sexual misconduct, is no longer telling her story for cash: Patreon said Tuesday the account was closed because of suspected “impersonation.”
“After multiple unsuccessful attempts to verify the identity of the account holder, we closed the Patreon page allegedly associated with Joycelyn Savage due to potential impersonation,” read the statement sent to USA TODAY by spokesperson Katie Uhlman. “All patrons who signed up for the membership page were refunded and the creator did not receive any funds.”
However, an unverified Instagram account that appears to be Savage’s (with 87,000 followers) remains open. Two messages posted last weekend declare she wants to “reveal” something and send readers to her Patreon account.
That’s the ambiguous status of another baffling episode in the long-running saga of superstar singer Robert Sylvester Kelly, 52, who’s facing 18 state and federal sex-crime charges in three states and is now locked up in a federal detention facility in Chicago awaiting his first trial.
Savage was not available to shed light on the situation; it’s not clear she has representation and she did not issue a public statement on Tuesday.
Over the last two decades, but especially this year, scores of women have accused Kelly of sexual abuse, sex-trafficking and underage sex, including in a damaging film series that aired on cable TV, “Surviving R. Kelly.”
Kelly has denied all wrongdoing and has pleaded not guilty to all the charges against him.
Azriel Clary, left, and Joycelyn Savage, R. Kelly's girlfriends, arrive at Brooklyn federal court for his arraignment Aug. 2, 2019, in New York. (Photo: Mark Lennihan/AP)
Throughout, his two girlfriends who lived with him in his Chicago high-rise apartment, Savage and Azriel Clary, stuck with him, appearing in court to support him and going on TV to defend him.
So when the Patreon account first appeared, it looked as if Savage was changing her story about her relationship with Kelly.
Patreon’s decision was followed Tuesday by a statement by Gerald Griggs, an Atlanta-based attorney who represents Savage’s estranged family. He said Patreon’s statement underscored the family’s worries for their daughter’s safety, and he appealed to police to get involved.
“Numerous allegations made by the account were alarming and confirmed details from our independent investigation, therefore we also unsuccessfully reached out to the
account,” Griggs said in a statement to USA TODAY. “With the potential dangers facing Joycelyn and her safety, we are asking for law enforcement to get involved in determining where Joycelyn is and who is really behind the account that detailed
potential crimes.”
Patreon allows account owners to post content available only to paying subscribers; the account under Savage’s name offers $3, $9 and $25 “tiers” that allow subscribers more exclusive content the more they pay.
R. Kelly as he leaves court after a hearing on his sexual assault charges in Chicago, on May 7, 2019. (Photo: TANNEN MAURY/ EPA-EFE)
The Patreon account claiming to belong to Savage made its debut on Saturday. In initial posts under the title, “Where It All Started: A Brief Story on How I Met Robert,” the writer refers to herself as a “victim” of sexual and psychological abuse at the hands of Kelly, according to NPR, which paid for access to see the posts.
After meeting him at age 19, the posts recounted, Kelly gave the writer gifts and money in exchange for promises of a music career, then became increasingly controlling, sexually abusive and physically violent. In the Sunday post, the writer alleged that Kelly forced her to have two abortions, including one at Kelly’s home rather than at a hospital or clinic where she might have been spotted.
Initially, Griggs thought the account might be legitimate, telling NBC affiliate WXIA-TV he’s “about 85 to 90% confident” of that.
In an earlier statement to USA TODAY provided through spokesperson Dontaye Carter, Griggs said Savage’s family was persuaded the account was legitimate because numerous details described on the account “confirm the abuse and coercion that the family has alleged (against Kelly) for two and a half years.”
Meanwhile, the two posts from Savage’s unverified Instagram account over the weekend were her first in more than two years. They announced she had “something I need to reveal, something I’ve (sic) should’ve talked about a long time ago,” before sharing a link to the Patreon account.
View this post on Instagram
I’m sorry.
A post shared by Joycelyn Savage (@joycelynsavage) on
Douglas Anton, a New Jersey lawyer who represents Kelly in one of his criminal cases and in a civil suit, told USA TODAY he spoke to Kelly in jail in Chicago Monday and his client discounted the validity of the Patreon account.
Anton said Savage has continued to regularly visit Kelly in jail and continues to live with Clary in Kelly’s apartment in the Trump Tower in Chicago. He said this suggests the account is bogus, although he wouldn’t comment on who might be behind it if not Savage.
Singer R. Kelly appears during a hearing at the Leighton Criminal Courthouse on Sept. 17, 2019, in Chicago. Kelly is facing multiple sexual assault charges and is being held without bail. (Photo: Antonio Perez/Pool via Getty Images)
The account described Kelly as so “controlling” he enlisted his assistants to constantly keep an eye on Savage, even standing by the bathroom door as she showered, according to the reports of her posts.
If legitimate, the posts would represent a sharp turn for Savage, a staunch Kelly defender. In July, she and Clary sent a video to TMZ dispelling rumors that they had been evicted from his Trump Tower Chicago home.
Griggs told USA TODAY he and Savage’s family initially hoped to use the Patreon account, if legitimate, to get in contact with Savage, adding “the family is ready to welcome her back with love and open arms.”
The family has not seen Savage in years and believes she was trapped by Kelly, before his arrest in February, in a “sex cult” that cut women off from their families and subjected them to degrading abuse. Savage has repeatedly denied this.
In a statement to Variety, another Kelly attorney, Steve Greenberg in Chicago, slammed the Patreon account as an attempt to spread false information for a quick cash grab.
“It is unfortunate that Jocelyn now seeks to make money by exploiting her long time, loving relationship with Robert,” Greenberg wrote. “Obviously if she were to tell the truth, no one would pay, so she has, unfortunately, chosen to regurgitate the stories and lies told by others for her own personal profit.
“We know the real facts, and it was not until the money ran out that she decided anything was wrong. Hopefully people will see it for the obvious profiteering it is.”
‘Surviving R. Kelly’: Everything we learned from Episodes 5 and 6
Source: Read Full Article