R&B crooner R. Kelly has found himself the target of a new lawsuit filed by a former employee.
The Chicago Sun-Times reports that Henry Love Vaughn is suing the singer for “breach of verbal contract,” alleging that Kelly reneged on a promise to pay for his collaboration in the creation of Kelly’s#### “Step in the Name of Love.”
Vaughn, who filed the lawsuit Wednesday (Oct. 4), also claimed he was beaten last February at the singer’s Olympia Fields estate.
Despite the accusation, Olympia Fields authorities do not intend to file charges after investigating the complaint.
In a written statement released Wednesday, Allan Mayer, a spokesman for Kelly, labeled Vaughn as a “disgruntled former employee and hanger-on.”
“His lawsuit is a pathetic collection of half-truths, distortions and outright lies,” he said.
Despite Mayer’s claim, Vaughn said that he has been like an uncle to Kelly, a view that is allegedly bolstered by notes he has from the singer that address him as “Uncle Henry Love.”
The alleged incident was sparked Feb. 19 when Vaughn said he was invited to watch the NBA All-Star Game.
In an April interview, Vaughn told the Sun-Times that although he wasn’t sure why, he speculated that his criticism of the “grown-up style” dancing by Kelly’s seven-year-old daughter on a pool table caused John Levy, an associate of the Grammy-winner, to begin punching him.
Levy and other members of Kelly’s crew then grabbed him and brought him to the front room to throw him out, Vaughn stated.
“R. Kelly sees me bleeding, grabs me, hits me upside the head and takes me into the basement. Then he drags me up the stairs and past security at the gate,” said Vaughn, who noted in the lawsuit that Kelly repeatedly hit him “about the face and body” while he was in the basement and that he was left with permanent injuries.
To further support his story, Vaughn has a police report, photos of a bloody lip and paperwork from the Advocate Christ Medical Center emergency room, according to the Sun-Times.
Levy and the other party-goers disputed Vaughn’s version of events, telling police that Kelly’s children were upstairs asleep and that Vaughn was drunk and had to be subdued.