R Kelly seeks release from prison, cites coronavirus risk in close-quarter conditions
R. Kelly has requested a release from the Chicago Metropolitan Correctional Center, March 26, on bond as he awaits his trial in Illinois federal court, citing a fear of contracting the rapidly spreading COVID-19.
In his motion filed by his attorney Steven Greenberg it states that the encouraged social distancing from the CDC is "simply impossible" in the close-quarter conditions of the correctional facility. It says, "No matter what steps they take the sanitation will be substandard, the risk of an internal pandemic at the MCC is great, and if one does get sick jail healthcare is notoriously substandard", according to Billboard. It also mentions that the R&B singer's legal team has been prohibited from entering the facility due to risk of exposure.
Kelly, an American singer-songwriter, had gained worldwide fame for hits such as 'Same Girl', 'U Saved Me', and most notably 'I Believe I Can Fly' which released in 1998 from his album 'R'. Kelly was arrested in Chicago in February last year after an indictment of 10 counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse. The indictment accused the 53-year-old singer of sexually abusing four women from 1998 to 2010. According to NewsWeek, three of the victims were between ages 13 and 16 at the time the incidents were reported.
Kelly faces several dozen counts of state and federal sexual misconduct charges in New York, Illinois and Minnesota from sexual assault to even heading a racketeering scheme aimed at supplying Kelly with girls. He was imprisoned in July and has been awaiting trial in a jail one block away from the courthouse, where he attends pretrial hearings. Kelly has also been accused of bribery related to his 1994 marriage to the late singer Aaliyah.
If Kelly's pitch to be released on bond is accepted, he will live with his girlfriend Jocelyn Savage at an apartment complex in Chicago. The motion reads, "He would submit to any conditions that this court saw fit, including home incarceration". Kelly's lawyer, Greenberg, compares staying in the facility under its current conditions is "tantamount to making them drink poison".
Rapper Tekashi 6ix9ine, who is currently incarcerated in New York, has also made a request earlier this week for release with fears of increased vulnerability to coronavirus as he has asthma, but his motion was denied on Wednesday, March 26.
Read more on R Kelly's sexual crimes here.
Read more on Tekashi 6ix9ine's request here.