A federal judge has denied a defense motion to release R. Kelly to home confinement after what lawyers called an assassination attempt against the disgraced musician.
The denial comes days after defense lawyers said Kelly was hospitalized for an overdose of medication administered by prison officials. The bombshell allegation also came shortly after Kelly’s attorneys alleged that prison officials directed another inmate to kill the R&B singer in exchange for the inmate’s freedom.
Kelly, whose full name is Robert Sylvester Kelly, is serving a 30-year prison sentence at the Federal Correctional Institute in Butner, North Carolina, after his 2021 New York conviction of racketeering and sex trafficking.
U.S. District Court Judge Martha Pacold denied Kelly’s motion on Thursday, ruling that she “lacks jurisdiction over this matter.”
Kelly’s attorney, Beau Brindley, did not immediately return a request for comment.
This month, Kelly’s attorney has filed a flurry of motions seeking to get the “Ignition” singer released to home confinement. Prosecutors have responded to Kelly’s request and allegations in court filings, calling them “deeply unserious and theatrical” and “repugnant to the sentence that this Court imposed for deeply disturbing offenses.”
In court filings last week, Kelly’s lawyer accused prison officials of soliciting another inmate, Mikeal Glenn Stine, to kill the singer. At the same time, the pair was detained at a federal prison in Tucson, Arizona, this spring. The court filing alleged that prison officials offered to free Stine, who has a terminal illness, in exchange for killing Kelly.
Shortly after the allegation was made, Kelly’s attorney claimed in court that his client was moved to solitary confinement.
Kelly’s lawyer this week alleged the singer was hospitalized on Friday after prison officials allegedly administered him an overdose of medication, according to a court filing. The filing alleged that prison officials then moved Kelly back to solitary confinement, taking him out of the hospital against doctors’ orders.
“Mr. Kelly’s life is in danger, and that danger is coming from Bureau of Prisons officials and their actions,” the Monday court filing states. “Mr. Kelly needs this Court’s intervention. His life actually depends on it.”
A spokesperson for the Bureau of Prisons said in a statement that it does “not discuss the conditions of confinement for any incarcerated individual” and “does not comment on pending litigation.”
Amid the slew of jaw-dropping court filings, Kelly’s attorney also told media outlets last week that he is trying to seek a presidential pardon for his client.
“President Trump has been fighting against this kind of criminal weaponization of the DOJ against public figures since he took office,” Brindley told USA Today. “And we will ask him to now stand up with us as we advance his fight and as our client fears that he might be killed to cover up the corruption that we seek to expose.”
Gerald Griggs, a lawyer representing some of Kelly’s victims, said in a statement that his clients are “firmly opposed to any efforts to secure his early release or the granting of a pardon.”
“No amount of extrajudicial activity changes the fact that he was found guilty and must serve the sentence imposed upon him,” Griggs said.
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