CHICAGO _ R&B star R. Kelly, awaiting trial on a litany of sex charges in a federal jail in downtown Chicago, used a jail staffer's phone to make at least one call, circumventing security measures, federal prosecutors in New York City revealed in a court filing.
Prosecutors also alleged that an undisclosed attorney _ not affiliated with the New York case _ smuggled in a letter during a jail visit in November. The letter was marked "Legal" in an attempt to keep authorities from checking out its contents, according to the filing.
Prosecutors raised the allegations in hopes they don't have to reveal the identities of two of Kelly's accusers in the case against him in federal court in Brooklyn.
If Kelly knows their identities, the prosecution filing said, he likely will attempt to intimidate or tamper with the witnesses _ even while he's locked up in the Metropolitan Correctional Center in downtown Chicago.
"The defendant has, at his disposal, individuals willing to assist him in bypassing the traditional methods used to monitor the defendant's communications," the filing warned. "The defendant's attempt to paint himself as being completely isolated from the outside world ... is simply not credible."
Prosecutors did not reveal when Kelly made a call with the jail staffer's phone, but that allowed him to communicate with someone on the outside without having their conversation monitored _ and recorded _ by jail officials.
Even R. Kelly's hasty 1994 wedding to 15-year-old singer Aaliyah was part of a longstanding pattern of witness tampering, prosecutors alleged in the filing.
The R&B singer married his underage protege only because he thought it would keep her from testifying against him if he faced charges for his illegal sexual contact with her, according to prosecutors, citing witnesses cooperating with the federal investigation.
"Simply put, the defendant's past behavior reveals that if given the opportunity to influence a potential witness, the defendant will take it, and his incarceration may not be enough to prevent such conduct," the prosecution filing said.
Kelly's attorneys have denied that he poses a threat to intimidate anyone while locked up and have demanded the accusers' names in order to adequately prepare for trial, scheduled for May.
The embattled R&B superstar, whose full name is Robert Sylvester Kelly, faces myriad charges related to sexual misconduct in four jurisdictions across the country.
The New York federal indictment charges him with racketeering conspiracy, alleging he identified underage girls attending his concerts and groomed them for later sexual abuse.
Kelly could face trial as soon as April in Chicago's federal court on charges of conspiring with two former employees to rig his 2008 child pornography trial in Cook County by paying off witnesses and victims to change their stories.
In addition, Kelly faces four separate indictments in Cook County criminal court alleging he sexually abused or assaulted four women _ three of them underage at the time. Prosecutors announced Wednesday they intend to take him to trial in September on charges he sexually abused his 24-year-old hairdresser in 2003.
Kelly also faces prostitution charges in Minnesota for allegedly soliciting an underage girl nearly 20 years ago.
It was the bombshell federal indictments in July, though, that have kept Kelly in custody without bail since.
In December, prosecutors in Brooklyn added an additional charge alleging that Kelly, then 27, had someone bribe a government official in Illinois in August 1994 to obtain a fake ID for 15-year-old Aaliyah Haughton to make it appear she was 18, the minimum age to be legally married in Illinois.
The next day, the two wed in a secret ceremony, but the marriage was later annulled by a Michigan judge at the insistence of Aaliyah's family.
In the recent Lifetime documentary series "Surviving R. Kelly," Kelly's former tour manager, Demetrius Smith, said he had arranged the forged Aaliyah marriage documents for Kelly and was among the handful of people present at the small ceremony in northwest suburban Rosemont.
"It was just a quick little ceremony. She didn't have on a white dress. He didn't have on a tux," Smith said in the documentary. "Just everyday wear. She looked worried and scared."
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