CHICAGO — Indicted R&B star R. Kelly formally told a federal judge in New York on Wednesday that he wishes to dump his Chicago-based attorneys just two months before they were scheduled to lead his defense in a high-profile racketeering trial.
During a telephone hearing in Brooklyn, U.S. District Judge Ann Donnelly asked Kelly directly whether he no longer wanted attorneys Steven Greenberg and Michael Leonard to represent him, choosing instead Thomas Farinella, of New York, and Nicole Blank Becker, of Michigan.
“Absolutely, yes, ma’am, Your Honor,” responded Kelly, who participated in the hearing from the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Chicago.
Kelly later interjected and asked the judge if he could explain more. “I apologize for the confusion,” he said. “If you will give me the chance to say something about it?”
Donnelly advised Kelly not to speak without having first talked to his lawyers, which ended the discussion. The judge also asked Greenberg and Leonard to file a full written explanation before she decides whether to allow them to withdraw.
Kelly, 54, is set to go to trial on Aug. 9 in Brooklyn on racketeering charges alleging he ran a criminal enterprise that recruited women and underage girls for illegal sexual contact, then isolated and threatened them to keep them under control.
Preparations are already underway for the trial, which has been delayed several times by the pandemic and will attract worldwide attention. Questionnaires are set to go out to a pool of hundreds of potential jurors next month, and prosecutors said Kelly will be moved in advance from the downtown Chicago jail where he’s been held since 2019 arrest to the MCC in New York.
Wednesday’s hearing was sparked by a terse, one-page filing by Greenberg and Leonard on Monday that gave no specific reason for the sudden change, saying only “it is impossible, in our belief, for us to be able to continue to properly represent Mr. Kelly under the current circumstances.”
Greenberg, who has represented Kelly since before his most recent criminal troubles began, told the Chicago Tribune that Farinella and Becker had been demanding larger roles in the upcoming trial even though they have limited federal court experience, eventually turning Kelly against Greenberg and Leonard.
In court Wednesday, Greenberg told the judge that he and Leonard had grown concerned at the lack of response from the other members of the team to their trial preparation.
Greenberg said they twice tried to meet with Kelly to discuss the issue but “he wouldn’t meet with us.”
Greenberg said he “received a document” last week detailing Kelly’s decision from someone who purported to have a power of attorney for the singer. After the motion to withdraw was filed Monday, Greenberg said he received an email directly from Kelly indicating his choice.
After court, Greenberg told the Tribune that he was happy for the opportunity to explain to the judge why he thinks Kelly is making a mistake.
“Our concern at this point is not whether we represent Mr. Kelly, but rather to ensure that he is represented by competent counsel who have a level of experience that will give him the defense he deserves,” Greenberg said.
In addition to the much-delayed proceedings in Brooklyn, Kelly also is set for trial in September in Chicago’s federal court. He is charged here with numerous sex abuse-related counts, including allegations he conspired with two former employees to rig his 2008 child pornography trial in Cook County by paying off witnesses and victims to change their stories.
Other indictments alleging sexual abuse by Kelly brought in Cook County in February 2019 have yet to be scheduled for trial.
