R. Kelly was hospitalized after reportedly being overmedicated by prison staff while in solitary confinement, according to a court filing from his legal team, which was obtained by CNN Tuesday.
The 58-year-old singer, whose full name is Robert Kelly, is serving two federal sentences at Butner Correctional Facility in North Carolina for sex trafficking, racketeering and child pornography. His projected release date is Dec. 21, 2045.
R. Kelly’s legal team has renewed calls for his emergency release from prison, claiming in court documents obtained by CNN that the Federal Bureau of Prisons is “taking active steps to kill” him — a claim the government has rejected as “fanciful.”
According to the filing, R. Kelly was moved to solitary confinement on June 10, shortly after submitting a previous emergency release request that accused prison officials of orchestrating a plot to have a fellow inmate take his life.
The filing alleges that after taking his regular medication on June 12, Kelly was instructed by prison staff to take an additional dose. The next morning, on June 13, he reportedly felt “faint” and “dizzy.”
“He started to see black spots in his vision. Mr. Kelly tried to get up but fell to the ground,” the motion stated, according to USA Today. “He crawled to the door of the cell and lost consciousness.”
He was taken by ambulance to Duke University Hospital, where, according to the filing, he “learned that he had been administered an overdose quantity of his medications that threatened his life.” Kelly remained hospitalized for two days.
According to the filing, prison officials ordered Kelly back to the facility before he could complete treatment for ongoing blood clot issues, doing so “against his will and against the directives of the doctors.”
Federal prosecutors responded by accusing Kelly of seeking release “under the guise of a fanciful conspiracy.” They criticized the motion as “deeply unserious and theatrical,” claiming it was improperly filed and “makes a mockery of the harm suffered by Kelly’s victims.”
Beau Brindley, Kelly’s lawyer, stressed the seriousness of the claims in a June 17 statement.
“For those who responded with skepticism about whether Bureau of Prisons officers would really engage in a plot to kill R. Kelly, those prison officials have now removed all doubt,” he said. “They want R. Kelly dead before the crimes committed against him in his cases are exposed.”
Brindley, who has previously appealed to President Donald Trump for a pardon, stressed the “need” for this “form of justice” on behalf of his client.
“It is this immediate and imminent threat that compels us again to seek the intervention of President Trump,” he said. “The courts do not move as quickly as the efforts to kill this man. President Trump may be the only person who can save the life of R. Kelly.”
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