R. Kelly isn’t going anywhere, even while COVID-19 is running rampant. The singer suffered another setback in his criminal case with a judge denying his motion for release.
While a Brooklyn federal court judge did admit that the coronavirus situation at the jail Kelly is housed in is serious, she refused to release the troubled singer.
According to The Blast, the judge was not persuaded by any of Kelly’s various arguments for release. Kelly’s legal team repeatedly filed motions asking the courts to consider the current outbreak, arguing that the singer was in danger while locked up at MCC Chicago.
At one point, Kelly even asked to be released, proposing that he could move in with his girlfriend, Joycelyn Savage, claiming he did not have the means and was too famous to flee the country.
But, Prosecutors demanded Kelly be shut down in his bid for release, saying he was a flight risk and danger to society. The prosecution feared he could devise a plan to get out of the country and avoid prosecution. The prosecution also accused Kelly of hiding hundreds of thousands in royalties, believing he’s diverted his income to a childhood friend’s bank account.
Now, in the newly filed court order, Judge Ann Donnelly denied the singer’s motion for release, saying Kelly is not “uniquely at risk for contracting severe illness.”
Donnelly also shut down Kelly’s attempts to present himself as unlikely to flee, saying, “Of course, the defendant is now charged with tampering with the witnesses in that case. In any event, his attendance record from a decades-old proceeding provides insufficient assurance that he would not attempt to flee if he were released. His circumstances and incentives are vastly different; he is now facing serious charges in multiple federal and state jurisdictions.”
