A federal judge on Thursday denied an emergency request from former R&B singer R. Kelly to be released from prison to home confinement, amid allegations from the disgraced music star earlier this month that prison officials were trying to kill him.
Kelly, who is serving a 30-year sentence on racketeering and sex crime charges in a North Carolina prison, brought the request to the wrong court, Judge Martha Pacold ruled.
“Kelly has not demonstrated a legal basis for this court’s jurisdiction,” she wrote. “Accordingly, his emergency motion ... is denied.”
Kelly’s attorney condemned the decision in a statement to Variety, saying Kelly remains in “imminent” danger.
“We are not surprised by this ruling as we knew that technical jurisdiction would be a challenge under these circumstances,” Beau Brindley said. “However, we had no choice but to act immediately given explicit evidence of a threat to Robert Kelly’s life.”
Kelly began seeking release on June 10 in the Chicago court in which he was originally convicted on child pornography charges, arguing prison authorities were conspiring to kill him. He was put in solitary confinement the same day.
The 58-year-old, whose real name is Robert Kelly, claims that once he was in solitary, prison authorities gave him a life-threatening dose of medication.
By June 13, Kelly was taken to Duke University Hospital, where Kelly’s lawyers say doctors saw untreated blood clots that required surgery, but the inmate was allegedly taken back to prison before he could receive such treatment.
Prior to the alleged medical incidents, Kelly claimed federal prison officials had conspired to use a member of the Aryan Brotherhood prison gang to kill the singer inside of prison.
Kelly, who has publicly appealed to President Donald Trump for reprieve, claims the plot was to prevent him from revealing an alleged attempt by federal officials to intercept his mail with his attorney during his child porn case.
Prosecutors have written off these allegations.
"Kelly refuses to accept responsibility for years of sexually abusing children and is using this Court's docket merely to promote himself despite there being no legal basis to be before this Court," they wrote in a court filing earlier this week.
