A federal judge in Chicago has rejected R. Kelly’s emergency request to be released from prison and placed on home detention, following his legal team’s claims that federal authorities are conspiring to k!ll him behind bars
The singer’s attorneys alleged in court filings that a former cellmate at the Chicago Metropolitan Correctional Center worked with prison staff to steal legal mail and share it with prosecutors before his trial.
They also claimed that officials attempted to recruit an Aryan Brotherhood member to k!ll Kelly at the North Carolina prison where he’s now held.
They further accused prison staff of giving Kelly a life-threatening overdose and removing him from a hospital against doctors’ advice.
The motion sought emergency relief and even included a public plea for then-President Trump to intervene. But U.S. District Judge Martha Pacold ruled Thursday that she has no jurisdiction over the matter, writing, “Kelly is currently housed at FCI Butner, which is located in Butner, North Carolina—outside this judicial district.
Kelly has not demonstrated a legal basis for this court’s jurisdiction. Accordingly, his emergency motion … is denied.”
Prosecutors dismissed the claims as baseless and offensive, stating, “Kelly refuses to accept responsibility for years of sexually abusing children and is using this Court’s docket merely to promote himself despite there being no legal basis to be before this Court.”
Kelly, 58, is serving a 30-year sentence from a 2021 conviction in New York for racketeering and s3x trafficking.
