Kelly was charged last month with 10 counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse and spent a weekend in jail before a woman who described herself as a friend posted $100,000 bond.
It was not immediately clear who arranged for Kelly’s release Saturday. His lawyer, Steven Greenberg, said the person who posted the $161,663 bond wished to remain anonymous.
“I promise you, we’re going to straighten all this stuff out,” Kelly said after he left the Cook County Jail in Chicago, according to television station WSB-TV.
He was taken into custody Wednesday after having appeared in court. He had been ordered last month to pay his ex-wife Andrea Kelly $161,663 in child support. They have three children together.
Kelly, 52, has repeatedly denied the allegations against him, including during a dramatic interview with Gayle King on “CBS This Morning,” which began airing segments Wednesday. He screamed, cried and jumped out of his chair, proclaiming he had done nothing wrong.
Kelly’s former criminal defense lawyer, Ed Genson, told Neil Steinberg, a columnist at The Chicago Sun-Times, that Kelly was “guilty as hell.” Genson represented Kelly as he fought child pornography charges that, after six years of delays, culminated in a 2008 trial. He was found not guilty.
Genson said that he did not think Kelly had “done anything inappropriate for years” because, he said, he sent the singer to the doctor for “libido-killing shots,” according to Steinberg’s column, which was published Thursday.
Genson also said that he had vetted Kelly’s songs and told him to rewrite lyrics that suggested he was attracted to young girls. He said that the song “Ignition,” a brazenly sexual song about a man driving around with a woman, was originally about a high school driving instructor and his students.
Kelly’s current criminal defense lawyer, Greenberg, said “you’d think a legend like Genson would recognize a jury acquitted him and that should be the end of it.”
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.