R. Kelly was rushed to hospital after he suffered a near-fatal overdose in prison.
According to a new filing by his attorney, Beau Brindley, the 58-year-old singer – who is serving 30 years in a North Carolina prison for sex trafficking and racketeering – was placed in isolation on June 10 with his anxiety medication.
After being given more medication by prison staff, he lost consciousness three days later and was taken to Duke University Hospital on June 13.
According to the document, Kelly was later removed from Duke University Hospital in Durham against medical advice.
The Bureau of Prisons declined to comment, citing “pending litigation.”
R. Kelly, born Robert Kelly, is currently serving a 30-year sentence following his 2022 conviction for racketeering and sex trafficking.
His lawyers say the incident occurred just days after an emergency furlough motion was filed on June 10. They claim that soon after filing the motion, which alleged a plot by three prison officials to have Kelly killed by another inmate, the singer was placed in solitary confinement against his will.
In the early hours of June 13, Kelly reportedly woke up feeling lightheaded and began experiencing vision problems.
The filing states, “He tried to stand but collapsed. He crawled to the cell door and lost consciousness.”
Unable to treat him on site, prison medical staff called for an ambulance, and Kelly was taken to Duke University Hospital where he remained for two days.
His legal team says they were unable to speak with him until June 16, after a scheduled phone call was abruptly canceled with no explanation.
Buku Abi, R. Kelly’s estranged daughter, who called her father a “monster” in a two-episode documentary Karma: after the release of the Surviving R. Kelly docuseries in 2019 have now alleged that the singer sexually abused her when she was 8 or 9 years old.
In the documentary which premiered on October 11, Abi, 26, claims she was abused by her father as a child, and she first reported it to her mother Andrea in 2009, when she was 10 years old.
“He was my everything. For a long time, I didn’t even want to believe that it happened. I didn’t know that even if he was a bad person he would do something to me,” she says in the documentary, the first episode of which is streaming now.
“I was too scared to tell anybody. I was too scared to tell my mom.”
Though Abi, who was born Joann Kelly, does not go into detail about the alleged abuse in the first episode, she says that she believes jail is a “well-suited place” for Kelly, 57, to be, as she knows from her “personal experience.”
“I really feel like that one millisecond completely just changed my whole life and changed who I was as a person and changed the sparkle I had and the light I used to carry,” she says. “After I told my mom, I didn’t go over there anymore; my brother [Robert] and sister [Jaah], we didn’t go over there anymore. And even up until now, I struggle with it a lot.”
Detailing the alleged abuse, which she says happened when she was 8 or 9, Abi said, “I just remember waking up to him touching me,” she recalls, crying. “And I didn’t know what to do, so I just kind of laid there, and I pretended to be asleep.”
Buku says she eventually told her mother what happened, and they went to the police and filed a complaint as “Jane Doe,” but, she adds in the documentary, “They couldn’t prosecute him because I waited too long. So at that point in my life, I felt like I said something for nothing.”
In a statement to People, Kelly’s attorney Jennifer Bonjean said, “Mr. Kelly vehemently denies these allegations. His ex-wife made the same allegation years ago, and it was investigated by the Illinois Department of Children & Family Services and was unfounded…. And the ‘filmmakers,’ whoever they are, did not reach out to Mr. Kelly or his team to even allow him to deny these hurtful claims.”
In February 2023, Kelly was sentenced in Chicago to 20 years in prison on charges of child pornography and enticement of minors for sex. The year prior, he was sentenced to 30 years in prison for racketeering and sex trafficking charges based out of New York. He’s currently serving 19 years of his two sentences concurrently, and he will be eligible for release in 2045.
Imprisoned RnB star, R. Kelly has filed a lawsuit against U.S federal prison officials for leaking his private info to an Internet blogger.
The singer filed a lawsuit against the U.S. government, a handful of Bureau of Prisons workers, and blogger, Tasha K, all of whom, he claims, were in cahoots to publicize his private matters while he was in custody out in Chicago during his case there.
He claimed that three unnamed BOP officials at the prison he was being held at, accessed the internal system that documented what he was doing within their walls, including email correspondence, private calls, visitor logs, etc.
Kelly and his lawyer, Jennifer Bonjean, believe the officials struck an agreement with Tasha K to supply her with Kelly’s personal info, which he suspects might’ve been done for cash.
The singer claimed the information Tasha who has a big YouTube following got, hurt his rep, invaded his privacy and caused him undue emotional distress.
He also claimed that the U.S. government was negligent in allowing its prison personnel to allegedly access and share this info and he’s asking for major damages.
The claims Kelly is making here date back to 2019. Since being convicted in his Chicago case, he has been moved to a federal facility in North Carolina where he’s serving his lengthy sentence.
Fast-rising Nigerian singer, Oludipe Oluwasanmi David, widely known as Spyro, has opened up about his feelings for his senior colleague, Tiwa Savage.
Recall that, the musician featured Tiwa Savage on the remix of his hit single, “Who’s Your Guy” released last week.
He made a post on his Instagram account, revealing that he often speaks with Tiwa on phone and he is thinking of aborting the mission because the more he speaks to her, the harder he falls for her.
He added that Tiwa Savage is an amazing soul, and he feels excited to have chosen her to be on the remix of his song.
He wrote: “You guys, TIWA is such an amazing soul. Super Glad I chose her for my remix. I actually think I need to stop talking to her on phone the more we talk the more I fall for her MY GUYEST GUY IS TIWA.”
TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) reports that Spyro started his musical career as a dedicated church choir member in Lagos State, and later diverted into circular music.
The Nigerian singer may be a new name in the Nigerian music industry, but his work ethic and other characteristics have shown to the world that he has what it takes to dominate the market.
He started his musical career as a high school freshman singing in a church choir. Spyro, whose principal source of income is the music business, has an undetermined net worth.
The Nigerian singer, who selected Usher and R. Kelly as his musical influences as seen by his musical style, started and remains an independent artist.
Spyro began his music career professionally in 2018 by releasing his first single “Funke”. The remix of the song featured popular Nigerian musicians Davido and Mayorkun.
He has released many other songs, such as “Japa”, “Amazing”, and “For You”, among others. Thank you for reading the full biography and net worth of The Nigerian singer (Oludipe Oluwasanmi David), you can as well read the Wikipedia biodata of Makinde Azeez. He is the CEO, founder and owner of Naijaloaded.
American artiste , Robert Sylvester Kelly, known on stage as R. Kelly, has been sentenced to an additional 20 years imprisonment.
The United State District Judge Harry D. Leinenweber after being found guilty by a jury of child pornography and enticement of a minor sentenced the 56-year-old to 20 years in jail on Thursday.
Kelly, who is already serving a federal 30-year jail term after three counts of production of child pornography and three counts of enticement of a minor to engage in criminal sexual activity in a federal trial in 2022, was found guilty of sexual molestation of a minor.
The pronouncement followed a concrete video evidence showing the singer sexually abusing his 14-year-old goddaughter.
The U.S. District Judge, handing out the judgement on Thursday, sentenced R. Kelly to 20 years imprisonment, in which 19 of those 20 years would be served concurrently with his earlier sentence instead of the 25 years sentence the prosecutors had demanded. While the remaining year would be served consecutively or after that sentence is completed.
According to the prosecutors, ”Robert Kelly is a serial sexual predator who, over the years, targeted young girls and went to great lengths to conceal his abuse of Jane and other minor victims. Following the jury verdict against him, to this day, Kelly refuses to accept responsibility for his crimes.”
The singer, however, remained silent for almost the entirety of the sentencing hearing and also refused to speak on his behalf.
Lead attorney to American singer, Robert Sylvester Kelly, aka R. Kelly, on Tuesday, got her chance to deliver her closing argument to federal jurors in Chicago.
This was a day after a prosecutor told them that weeks of evidence proved the singer parlayed his fame to sexually abuse minors and record the abuse on video.
Kelly faces charges including production of child pornography, enticing minor girls for sex and obstruction of justice by rigging his 2008 child pornography trial in state court, at which he was acquitted.
Jurors were expected to begin deliberating later Tuesday.
In her closing, prosecutor Elizabeth Pozolo described Kelly as a secret sexual predator.
“Robert Kelly abused many girls over many years,” she said, referring to the 55-year-old Grammy winner by his full first name. “He committed horrible crimes against children. All these years later, the hidden side of Robert Kelly has come out.”
Kelly attorney Jennifer Bonjean twice called for a mistrial Monday, complaining that closing arguments by attorneys for Kelly co-defendants Derrell McDavid and Milton Brown were grounded in the presumption that “the world now knows Mr. Kelly is a sex predator.”
“The presumption of innocence has been abolished for him,” Bonjean said, meaning Kelly was unable to get a fair trial. Judge Harry Leinenweber denied the requests.
Prosecutors will have the opportunity for a short rebuttal after Bonjean gives her closing argument in Kelly’s hometown of Chicago, where he rose from poverty to become an R&B superstar.
TheNewsGuru.com recalls that a New York judge sentenced R. Kelly to 30 years in prison after a jury found the multiplatinum singer guilty on nine counts of sex trafficking and racketeering in September last year.
Known for his smash hit “I Believe I Can Fly” and for sex-infused songs such as “Bump n’ Grind,” Kelly sold millions of albums even after allegations of sexual misconduct began circulating in the 1990s. Widespread outrage emerged after the #MeToo reckoning and the 2019 docuseries “Surviving R. Kelly.”
Kelly and McDavid, Kelly’s former business manager, are accused of fixing the 2008 trial by intimidating and paying off witnesses.
Both face child pornography charges. Brown, a former Kelly associate, is accused of receiving child pornography.
Kelly was sentenced in June to 30 years in prison after a separate federal trial in New York, where he was convicted of racketeering and sex trafficking.
Convictions on just a few of the 13 counts Kelly faces at his current trial could add years to his imprisonment.
Pozolo focused much of her closing argument on the government’s star witness, an accuser who went by “Jane” and who said Kelly sexually abused her hundreds of times starting when she was 14.
“He performed degrading acts upon her for his own sick pleasure,” Pozolo said.
She reminded jurors of graphic video footage they had watched, which Jane testified depicted Kelly, at around age 30, abusing her when she was 14. The videos shown included one at the heart Kelly’s 2008 trial. Jurors said later they had no choice but to acquit Kelly because Jane didn’t testify.
“Who does that? Who uses a 14-year-old child to film a video like this?” she said. “This man. Robert Kelly.”
Before Kelly’s 2008 trial, Pozolo said, Kelly and his associates scrambled to recover multiple sex videos that had gone missing from a collection he often carried around in a large gym bag.
By doing so, she said, Kelly associates sought “to cover up the fact that … R. Kelly, the R&B superstar, is actually a sexual predator.”
In his closing, an attorney for McDavid said prosecutors had to show that his client actually knew about any abuse of Jane by Kelly in the 2000s — not just that it was likely he knew.
“Did they prove he knew … behind a reasonable doubt?” Beau Brindley asked. “They did not.”
Pozolo balked at the idea that McDavid had no inkling in the 2000s that the abuse allegations might be credible after helping to recover missing recordings and handing bags of cash to people who returned videos McDavid knew could destroy Kelly.
In a bid to prove that American singer, Robert Sylvester Kelly, popularly known as R.Kelly, engaged in child porn, enticed underage girls for sex and successfully rigged his 2008 state trial, Prosecutors on Tuesday rested their case at the singer’s federal trial in Chicago, after presenting two weeks of testimony, including from four Kelly accusers.
Starting in the 1990s, Kelly faced accusations of using his fame to lure young fans, including minors, into inappropriate sexual relationships.
He stood trial in 2008 on child pornography charges, winning acquittal.
Kelly evaded lasting consequences until the 2019 documentary television series Surviving Kelly sparked renewed public attention regarding accusations of Kelly’s sexual misconduct with minors.
Judge Harry Leinenweber told jurors they would have Wednesday off, then return for the first defense witnesses Thursday
As a result of the ensuing backlash, RCA Records dropped Kelly and law enforcement in New York, Chicago, and Minneapolis pursued new criminal cases against him. Kelly was arrested on federal charges and denied bail in July 2019.
A 2021 trial in Brooklyn federal court convicted Kelly for violations of the Mann Act and racketeering, resulting in a 30-year prison sentence.
On August 17, 2022, another trial began in Chicago federal court, where Kelly is currently facing charges for corruptly fixing his 2008 Illinois trial.
As of July 2022, Kelly is an inmate of Metropolitan Correctional Center, Chicago with federal register number 09627-035. He continues to challenge his New York conviction and pleads not guilty to the charges in Illinois.
Among the last prosecution witnesses was a 42-year-old woman who went by the pseudonym “Nia.” Taking the stand Tuesday morning, she was the fourth and final accuser to testify at the trial in Kelly’s hometown.
A fifth accuser, who prosecutors had said during openings would testify, never did. They didn’t explain why.
Closing arguments are expected to happen in the middle of next week
Through her testimony, Nia painted a picture of Kelly as a master manipulator who reeled in star-stuck fans, like her, to sexually abuse them and then discard them.
The highlight of the prosecutors’ case came two weeks ago with the testimony of a 37-year-old woman who used the pseudonym “Jane.” She described Kelly sexually abusing her hundreds of times starting in 1998 when she was 14 and Kelly was around 30.
Jane’s testimony is vital to the charge accusing Kelly of fixing his 2008 child pornography trial, at which he was acquitted. She testified that Kelly and his associates threatened and paid off her and her parents to lie to a grand jury before that trial.
Legal teams for Kelly and two co-defendants now get their chance to attack the government’s case.
Judge Harry Leinenweber told jurors they would have Wednesday off, then return for the first defense witnesses Thursday.
Closing arguments are expected to happen in the middle of next week.
A New York federal judge sentenced Kelly in June to 30 years in prison for convictions on racketeering and sex trafficking charges.
Kelly gave Nia, an aspiring actress and model, his telephone number after the then-15 year-old asked him for an autograph at an Atlanta mall in 1996, she testified.
She said Kelly knew her age when he invited her to a concert in Minnesota, bought her plane ticket and sent a limousine with an all-red interior to pick her up.
On the way to the airport, Nia stopped to buy a red rose for Kelly, which she placed in her hotel room.
When Kelly came to her room, he kissed her, then told her to undress and sit next to him on the bed.
She said she was uncomfortable but did as he said. After touching her and himself, he quickly left, she said.
“I never got the chance to give him the rose,” Nia told jurors.
Nia spoke calmly and clearly as Kelly, wearing in a dark blue suit and black face mask, sat some 25 feet (7.6 meters) in front of her and looked directly at her. When Jane testified earlier in the trial, he often kept his eyes down.
Nia said that for weeks after meeting Kelly, he promptly answered all her calls. But before long, he never answered them. When she saw him years later at a video shoot, she said she was hurt when he didn’t appear to recognize or acknowledge her.
She ended up suing Kelly in the early 2000s, alleging sexual abuse. Kelly quickly settled, paying her $500,000.
Kelly’s 2008 state trial revolved around a video prosecutors said showed him sexually abusing Jane. She did not testify at that trial, but she told jurors at the current trial that she was the child in the video and Kelly was the adult man. Jurors at the ongoing trial viewed excerpts of that video and two others.
Kelly sold millions of albums even after allegations about his abuse began circulating publicly in the 1990s. Widespread outrage did not emerge until after the #MeToo reckoning and the 2019 docuseries “Surviving R. Kelly.”
Kelly associates Derrel McDavid and Milton Brown are co-defendants at the Chicago trial.
McDavid, a longtime Kelly business manager, is accused of helping Kelly rig the 2008 trial. Brown is charged with receiving child pornography.
Lawyers for American singer and convicted sex offender, Robert Sylvester Kelly (aka R.Kelly) have sued the Brooklyn jail where he is being held after being sentenced to 30 years in prison for sex trafficking and abusing young girls.
TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) reports that R. Kelly’s Lawyers sued Brooklyn prison for placing him on suicide watch ‘as punishment’ after he was sentenced.
The disgraced R&B star was “illegally placed” on suicide watch on Friday at the MDC in Brooklyn, his atttorney Jennifer Bonjean said.
Jennifer Bonjean
“R. Kelly is not suicidal. He was in fine spirits after his sentencing hearing and ready to fight this appeal,” Bonjean added.
Bonjean said she believed the 55-year-old was put under suicide watch for “punitive reasons”.
In her words: “Mr. Kelly was placed on suicide watch for purely punitive reasons in violation of his Eighth Amendment rights. MDC has a policy of placing high profile individuals under the harsh conditions of suicide watch whether they are suicidal or not. MDC Brooklyn is being run like a gulag.”
On Wednesday, Judge Ann M. Donnelly handed down Kelly’s 30-year sentence in the Brooklyn Federal Court
Kelly was convicted of sex-trafficking and racketeering charges last September following a six-week trial that amplified accusations.
The ‘I Believe I Can Fly Singer’ has committed the heinous acts for decades before he was convicted.
Kelly declined to speak at his sentences after the court heard accusations from angered victims about how the singer preyed on them.
Aside from his 30 year sentence, he must also pay a $100,000 fine. It’s unclear where Kelly will spend his sentence.
Donnelly told Kelly he created ‘a trail of broken lives,’ adding that ‘the most seasoned investigators will not forget the horrors your victims endured.’
‘These crimes were calculated and carefully planned and regularly executed for almost 25 years,’ she said. ‘You taught them that love is enslavement and violence.’
Kelly, who declined to speak at his sentencing, learned his fate after some of his accusers told the court, through tears and anger, that he had preyed on them and misled his fans. He was also was ordered to pay a $100,000 fine.
Kelly, born Robert Sylvester Kelly, has been detained at Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn since his trial. It has not been revealed where Kelly would spend his sentence.
Lizzette Martinez, one of the victims who spoke earlier at the hearing, said she doesn’t think Kelly’s sentence is enough ‘but I’m pleased with it.’
Martinez, who described herself to the reporters as an ‘up-and-coming singer, a girl full of life’ before she met R Kelly and became ‘a sex slave.’
The sentence caps a slow-motion fall for Kelly, who was adored by legions of fans and sold millions of albums even after allegations about his abuse of young girls began circulating publicly in the 1990s.
Widespread outrage over Kelly’s sexual misconduct didn’t come until the #MeToo reckoning, reaching a crescendo after the release of the docuseries ‘Surviving R. Kelly.’
Kelly’s lawyers had argued he should get no more than 10 years in prison because he had a traumatic childhood ‘involving severe, prolonged childhood sexual abuse, poverty, and violence.’
As an adult with ‘literacy deficiencies,’ the star was ‘repeatedly defrauded and financially abused, often by the people he paid to protect him,’ his lawyers said.
Allegations that Kelly abused young girls began circulating publicly in the 1990s. He was sued in 1997 by a woman who alleged sexual battery and sexual harassment while she was a minor, and he later faced criminal child pornography charges related to a different girl in Chicago. A jury there acquitted him in 2008, and he settled the lawsuit.
But last year, the jury convicted the ‘I Believe I Can Fly’ hitmaker after hearing about how he used his entourage of managers and aides to meet girls and keep them obedient, an operation prosecutors said amounted to a criminal enterprise.
Several accusers testified that Kelly subjected them to perverse and sadistic whims when they were underage.
The accusers alleged they were ordered to sign nondisclosure forms and were subjected to threats and punishments such as violent spankings if they broke what one referred to as ‘Rob’s rules.’
Some said they believed the videotapes he shot of them having sex would be used against them if they exposed what was happening.
According to testimony, Kelly gave several accusers herpes without disclosing he had an STD, coerced a teenage boy to join him for sex with a naked girl who emerged from underneath a boxing ring in his garage, and shot a shaming video of one victim showing her smearing feces on her face as punishment for breaking his rules.
Harrowing story of how R. Kelly sexually abused Aaliyah, impregnated and married her- ACCUSER
A former R. Kelly backup dancer testified on Monday that she witnessed the disgraced singer perform a sexual act on the late R&B singer Aaliyah when she was underage.
R. Kelly and Aaliyah
The witness, who was identified as Angela, told the Brooklyn Federal Court that she had sexual intercourse with Kelly when she was a minor on multiple occasions in the early Nineties. Angela, who worked as a backup dancer for Kelly, said she saw him performing oral sex on Aaliyah during a tour in either 1992 or 1993, when the singer was just 12 or 13 years old.
Kelly has repeatedly denied accusations that he led a criminal enterprise that sexually exploited women, girls and even boys during a 30-year career. His lawyers have portrayed his accusers as groupies who are lying about their relationships with him.
Angela is the 10th accuser to testify against Kelly over the past three weeks. She said that she was either 14 or 15 years old when she first met Kelly in 1991 at a party, and the singer had sexual intercourse with her for the first time that night.
“He asked me to climb on top of him,” Angela said, adding that there were three other young women in various states of undress in the room with them. “I paused for a moment. I was a little startled.”
She claimed Kelly asked her to ‘straddle him and ride him.’ She said she did as she was told after putting a condom on Kelly. During the encounter, the singer also allegedly fondled the other young women who were present, according to Vulture.
Angela explained that she continued seeing Kelly every day for the next few years. She later dropped out of high school and began working as a backup dancer for him. According to the woman, she and other dancers were expected to have sex with Kelly.
“He told us we had to pay our dues. It was a requirement to be around,” she said.
The alleged sexual encounter between Kelly and Aaliyah that Angela said she witnessed supposedly took place on a tour bus. Angela said she and another young woman tried to play a prank on Kelly, and when Angela opened the door to Kelly’s bedroom on the bus, she said, “I saw Robert and Aaliyah in a sexual situation. It appeared that he had his head in between her legs and was giving her oral sex… I closed the door abruptly and pushed the girl behind me away from the door.”
Angela said she then abruptly shut the door and never spoke to Kelly about what she allegedly witnessed. Aaliyah was about 13 years old at the time of the alleged encounter.
Kelly and Aaliyah were illegally married in August 1994. At the time, Aaliyah was 15-years-old and Kelly was 27. Kelly’s former road manager Demetrius Smith testified that Kelly married Aaliyah to avoid jail time because he believed Aaliyah was pregnant with his baby, theGrio previously reported. Smith admitted to helping orchestrate the illegal union by bribing an Illinois government employee $500 for a fake ID. The ID listed Aaliyah’s age as 18, though a birth date was missing.
Aaliyah tragically died in August 2001 alongside eight others after a plane destined for Miami crashed less than a minute after take-off in the Bahamas.
American singer-songwriter, Robert Sylvester Kelly, popularly known as R. Kelly has been sentenced to 30 years in prison.
TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) reports R. Kelly, 55, was sentenced on Wednesday by US District Judge Ann Donnelly after he was found guilty of charges related to sex trafficking.
R. Kelly’s 30-year sentence was the end of a long downfall for the former R&B superstar. He was convicted last September in New York of racketeering and violating a sex trafficking law known as the Mann Act.
He had faced years of allegations and the judge on Wednesday said he had an “indifference to human suffering”.
Ahead of his sentencing, a handful of women took the stand to confront Kelly.
Meanwhile, lawyers for the singer have said they will appeal the ruling.
Robert Sylvester Kelly popularly known as R. Kelly has disclosed that he is innocent of all allegations against him after he was found guilty of racketeering in a high-profile sex trafficking case.
He made this disclosure via his social media handle, thanking all his fans for their support throughout his trial and also assuring them that he will continue to prove his innocence.
R. Kelly in his statement online said: “To all my fans and supporters I love you all and thank you for all the support. Today’s verdict was disappointing and I will continue to prove my innocence and fight for my freedom. #notguilty.”
The singer has been in custody and on trial in New York for one count of racketeering since he was formally charged in 2019, with 14 underlying acts that included sexual exploitation of a child, kidnapping, bribery and sex trafficking charges. He was also charged with eight additional counts of violations of the Mann Act, a sex trafficking law that bars the transport of people across state lines “for any immoral purpose.”
