Singer R. Kelly’s lawyers allege he was target of ‘overdose’ plot by prison guards
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Disgraced singer R. Kelly is serving a 30-year prison sentence at a facility in North Carolina.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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NEW YORK – Lawyers for R. Kelly said in recent court filings that the criminally convicted American singer suffered an “overdose” of medication at the hands of prison officials.
Kelly, 58, is serving a 30-year prison sentence at a facility in North Carolina. He was found guilty of myriad crimes, including federal racketeering and sex trafficking of minors.
His lawyers alleged in a flurry of filings on June 16 and 17 that Kelly was in solitary confinement when prison staff instructed him to take an “overdose quantity of medication” on June 12.
The R&B star, whose full name is Robert Sylvester Kelly, became faint and dizzy by the next morning, the filing alleged.
“Mr Kelly tried to get up, but fell to the ground. He crawled to the door of the cell and lost consciousness,” his attorneys said.
The court papers said Kelly was taken in an ambulance to Duke University Hospital and was under treatment for two days.
Queried by AFP, the Bureau of Prisons declined to comment.
“For privacy, safety and security reasons, we do not discuss the conditions of confinement for any incarcerated individual, including medical and health-related issues,” the office said in a statement. “Additionally, the Bureau of Prisons does not comment on pending litigation or matters that are the subject of legal proceedings.”
Kelly’s lawyers had previously filed an emergency motion for release to home detention, saying that the once-famous artiste was the target of a murder plot orchestrated by prison officials.
In opposing the request, government attorneys called the accusations fanciful and theatrical.
The request “makes a mockery of the harm suffered by Kelly’s victims”, the Chicago federal lawyers said, adding that it was not filed in the correct court with the jurisdiction to entertain the accusations.
Kelly was convicted in 2021 in New York federal court for using an enterprise to systematically recruit and traffic teenagers and women for sex.
The singer, known for hits like I Believe I Can Fly (1996), was then convicted one year later in Chicago federal court in a separate trial, in which jurors found him guilty of producing child pornography and enticement of a minor.
He is serving the New York prison sentence, and will serve almost all of the Chicago sentence concurrently. AFP
