R. Kelly, the Grammy-winning R & B singer, was indicted today on 21 counts of child pornography after the authorities said he made a sexually explicit videotape with an underage girl that has been selling in bootleg versions on street corners across the country.
Mr. Kelly was arrested this afternoon after leaving a home he was renting in Davenport, Fla., by Polk County sheriff's deputies and was held in jail pending a hearing on Thursday morning.
The charges resulted from a four-month police investigation into whether Mr. Kelly, 35, was the man seen having sex on a widely circulated bootleg version of the videotape being sold on the streets from Los Angeles to Chicago to New York.
''It's unfortunate to see Mr. Kelly's talents go to waste,'' Superintendent Terry G. Hillard of the Chicago police said at a news conference this afternoon.
''These acts are serious crimes that involve harmful acts, which damage and degrade our children while diminishing the integrity of the entire community,'' Mr. Hillard said. ''Decency and the law demand this indictment today.''
In a statement, released this afternoon by his Los Angeles lawyer, Mr. Kelly said: ''Even though I don't believe any of these charges are warranted, I'm grateful that I will have a chance to establish the truth about me in a court of law. I have complete faith in our system of justice, and I am confident that when all the facts come out, people will see that I'm no criminal.''
Mr. Hillard said the police began their investigation into the singer, whose name is Robert Kelly, in February after The Chicago Sun-Times gave them a copy of the videotape, which had been sent anonymously to the newspaper.
Under the indictment returned this morning by a Cook County grand jury, Mr. Kelly faces seven counts on each of the Class 1 felony charges of directing the videotaping, producing the video and enticing the teenager into engaging in illicit sex acts. If convicted, he faces up to 15 years in prison and a $100,000 fine.
The indictment charges that Mr. Kelly ''knew or should have known'' that the girl was a minor. The police did not identify the girl, who is now 17, and said the tape was made from November 1997 to last February.
The charges come after months of public uproar over the tape, widely available on the Internet as well as the streets.
Last month, in a public appearance to break his silence about the tapes, Mr. Kelly told Black Entertainment Television he had not had sex with a minor and vehemently denied he was the man on the videotape.
The rapper Jay-Z, who recently released an album with Mr. Kelly, ''The Best of Both Worlds,'' has distanced himself from Mr. Kelly, and their album's sales have suffered.
Mr. Kelly, perhaps most widely known for his ballad on the sound track of ''Space Jam,'' ''I Believe I Can Fly,'' has been mired in controversy in recent years over other accusations that he has had sex with under-age girls. His brief marriage to the singer Aaliyah, when she was 15 and he was in his late 20's, has been well publicized. The Sun-Times reported that Mr. Kelly in recent years paid settlements to three young women who filed suit or threatened to sue him over sexual relationships that they said were coerced or had occurred when they were minors.
Here in his hometown, where Mr. Kelly began his rise to fame and remains extremely popular, reaction was mixed as local radio stations, like WGCI-FM, buzzed with callers throughout the day.
Elroy Smith, the station's program director, said the station, where demonstrators several weeks ago protested to get the station to stop playing Mr. Kelly's music, decided today that it would play only the artist's ''more positive'' songs, not songs like ''Feeling On Your Booty.''
''We are going to continue to play the music because that is where the listeners are at,'' Mr. Smith said, adding that the station would re-evaluate its decision after Mr. Kelly's trial. ''Until then, we are not here to judge anybody.''
On the West Side, outside George's Music Room, a record store where a larger-than-life mural of the singer is painted on the side of the building, reaction was mixed.
''I can't really judge that brother because we all human, we all make mistakes,'' said a 29-year-old man who gave his name only as Moe. ''You've got to pay for your mistakes, man. It's sad.''
Many question the authenticity of the tapes.
''Anybody can make those tapes up,'' said Jacqueline Rayford, 36, standing outside George's. ''I hate to see that happen to him. I feel like they're doing that because this brother has money.''
Ms. Rayford said she and a friend watched a bootleg copy of the tape and that she is convinced that the man in the video, though he looks a lot like Mr. Kelly, was not him.
''I don't believe that because he came to our church and he dedicated a song to the women in the community,'' Ms. Rayford said. ''It was, 'You Are So Beautiful.' And that always stuck with me.''
Photos: In front of a mural of R. Kelly in Chicago, Jacqueline Rayford said she would remain a fan of the singer, who was taken into custody in Florida. (Peter Thompson for The New York Times); (Associated Press)
