FALLEN R&B star R Kelly has made a desperate plea to be let out of his solitary prison cell, even if it means sharing a room with killers and paedophiles.
The singer is making a plea to a federal judge to be removed from solitary confinement and put in the general population.
Kelly’s lawyer Steven Greenberg filed legal documents claiming the solitary area where the singer is confined is designed for punishment and not for inmates pending trial, TMZ reported.
Greenberg argues Kelly has no meaningful interaction with human beings and no time outside in direct sunlight.
He has also claimed that his client has no access to media or recreational activities and is allowed only one 15-minute telephone call per month.
Furthermore, Greenberg contends that Kelly has no face-to-face visitations that are not recorded, is only able to shower three days a week and cannot buy snacks.
Kelly, real name Robert Sylvester Kelly, was charged earlier this year with 10 counts of aggravated sexual abuse involving four women.
Three of his alleged victims were underage minors aged 13 to 16 at the time of the supposed crimes.
Sex crimes involving underage girls are considered particularly heinous inside prison and those convicted can face abuse and even death at the hands of other inmates in the general prison population.
Greenberg claims Kelly is being kept in solitary – an area designated for those convicted of a crime or for rule violations – because of his “celebrity status” and the fact he’s charged with sex crimes involving minors.
He has asked a judge to consider solitary confinement’s impact on Kelly’s physical and mental health.
Kelly has pleaded not guilty to all charges – but if convicted, could face up to 70 years in jail.
What charges is R Kelly facing?
In February 2019 R Kelly was charged with ten counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse.
Then in May 2019 it was revealed he has been charged with 11 new counts of sex assault against a teen victim.
On July 12, 2019, Kelly was arrested on suspicion of sex trafficking by New York cops – while still facing sexual abuse charges in Chicago.
He was cuffed by NYPD detectives and Homeland Security Investigators, law enforcement officials said.
Kelly is currently in federal custody.
New details about his alleged crimes have been outlined by prosecutors in New York, who want him kept behind bars.
According to the New York indictment, Kelly is alleged to have committed sex crimes against five women, given the name Jane Doe to protect their identities.
On July 16 he was denied bail in Chicago after entering a not guilty plea to child porn charges.
Parents reportedly told police that the star is keeping six young women at his properties in Atlanta and Chicago, reported Buzzfeed.
It’s alleged that they’re only allowed to use mobile phones provided by Kelly, must call him “daddy,” and can only eat, sleep or wash when he lets them.
Kelly also films their sexual encounters, the reports claimed.
One young woman Joycelyn Savage has said she is safe and “in a happy place” after her family claimed she was being held by him at a secret location in Atlanta.
Another woman, Jerhonda Pace, claims she had underage sex with R Kelly at the age of 16 and was “trained” to please him.
She alleges the singer would “physically harm her” and “lock her in a room for days” as punishment.
He was then accused of infecting Faith Rodgers, 19, with an STD on purpose.
She was reportedly in a eight-month relationship with him after meeting him at a concert in San Antonio, Texas, and filed the lawsuit for “wilfully, deliberately and maliciously” infecting her with herpes.
In January 2019, the Surviving R Kelly docu-series aired in the US and featured accounts of alleged female victims who waived their right to anonymity to claim they were sexually abused, bullied into threesomes, impregnated, held prisoner and beaten for looking at other men.
In the series, backing singer Jovante Cunningham claims that, like so many of Kelly’s young lovers, she was lured from outside her school to “hang out” at the star’s Chicago music studio where women lay on beds around the property simply waiting for him.
Another backing singer, Lizzette Martinez, met R Kelly when she was 17. After making one of his regular visits to the mall to scout for young girls, she says he took a shine to her.
R Kelly’s collaborator Lovell Jones alleged his taste in younger women was “common knowledge in the camp”.
He said the singer would ask him to find girls that “looked young” at after-show parties.