R. Kelly’s lawyers are alleging that the disgraced R&B singer overdosed last week on medication given to him by prison staff.
In a filing, obtained by USA Today, Kelly’s legal team claims that after he was placed in solitary confinement, prison staff provided him an “overdose quantity” of medication on June 12 compared with his “normal anxiety and sleep medication dosages,” which resulted in his hospitalization on June 13.
The filing states that Kelly was “forcibly removed from Duke University Hospital in Durham, North Carolina, against medical advice.”
Kelly was convicted in 2021 in Brooklyn federal court of multiple charges, including racketeering and sex trafficking and has been serving a 30-year sentence since 2022 in the Federal Correctional Institute facility in Butner, N.C.
His lawyers claim that the alleged overdose took place after he was put in solitary confinement on June 10 “against his will,” shortly after his legal team filed an emergency motion seeking his immediate release from federal custody to home detention while claiming that his life is in danger and accusing the government of misconduct, according to Variety.
Kelly woke up feeling “faint” and “dizzy” on June 13, according to the filing.
“He started to see black spots in his vision. Mr. Kelly tried to get up, but fell to the ground,” the motion read. “He crawled to the door of the cell and lost consciousness.”
Kelly’s lawyers say onsite prison medical staff could not help him and that’s when he was transported to Duke University Hospital by ambulance, where he stayed for two days.
His team said they were only able to speak to him on Monday, after a previous call was cancelled “without explanation.”
The filing also claimed that Kelly was removed from the hospital before he was set to receive surgery on “an ongoing blood clot issue” and the hospital would need to keep him there for two weeks for the surgery.
“Within an hour, officers with guns came into his hospital room and removed Mr. Kelly. He was taken from the hospital against his will and against the directives of the doctors,” according to Kelly’s lawyers.
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“It is undeniable. Mr. Kelly’s life is in jeopardy right now because the Bureau of Prisons denied him necessary surgery to clear clots from his lungs,” Kelly’s lawyer Beau B. Brindley claimed. “He could die from this condition, and they are letting it happen.”
Brindley is requesting a temporary furlough to home detention but federal prosecutors are referring to Kelly’s emergency motion claims as “fanciful” and “theatrical.”
They also noted that Kelly’s motion was filed at the wrong court and location, using the wrong kind of case and not following proper procedure.
Federal prosecutors also said Kelly’s emergency motion “makes a mockery of the harm suffered by Kelly’s victims” and accused him of being a “master manipulator.”
In a filing from June 10, Kelly’s lawyers claimed they had explicit evidence that officials solicited an inmate to murder him while in custody at the federal penitentiary in North Carolina.
His lawyers provided a sworn declaration from Mikeal Glenn Stine, a terminally ill inmate and leader of the Aryan Brotherhood, who said officials offered him freedom in exchange for Kelly’s murder.
The Aryan Brotherhood is a violent white supremacist gang formed within California state prisons in the late 1960s that has since spread in the federal prison system. Authorities have spent decades trying to bring down the organization.
Stine claimed that he was told Kelly and his lawyers were planning to expose damaging information and the filing alleged that officials violated lawyer-client privilege by intercepting personal correspondence, according to Variety.
Stine said officials told him he would be charged with Kelly’s murder, but that the evidence would allegedly be mishandled, resulting in no conviction.
He claimed that he arrived at Kelly’s unit in March and was prepared to kill him but had a change of heart and told the R&B singer what the Bureau of Prisons officials allegedly directed him to do.
Kelly’s lawyers said they learned in early June that a second member of the Aryan Brotherhood was allegedly directed by officials to kill both Kelly and Stine.
His lawyers claim that Kelly is in danger as he remains in custody with other members of the Aryan Brotherhood.
“The threat to Mr. Kelly’s life continues each day that no action is taken,” read the filing, according to Variety. “More A.B. members are accumulating at his facility. More than one has already been approached about carrying out his murder. One of them will surely do what Mr. Stine has not, thereby burying the truth about what happened in this case along with Robert Kelly.”
After filing the emergency motion, Kelly’s legal team requested clemency from U.S. President Donald Trump last week in a bid to transfer the disgraced singer from federal prison to home confinement.
“We are in open discussions with people close to President Trump. And those discussions have expanded and intensified since we filed our motion,” Brindley told People in a statement. “We believe that President Trump is the only person with the courage to help us.”
— With files from The Associated Press
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