Embattled R&B singer, Robert Kelly’s third attempt to get out of jail early while awaiting trial on charges of sexually abusing young girls has suffered a setback as a judge turned down the request.
The singer had claimed he was at high risk of coronavirus because he is prediabetic.
In her decision on Friday, US District Judge Ann Donnelly wrote: ‘I do not agree that a diagnosis of prediabetes presents a compelling reason for the defendant’s release. While the Center for Disease Control, CDC has identified diabetes as a risk factor for COVID-19, the same is not true for prediabetes, a condition that affects nearly one in three American adults.’
She said prison doctors were working ‘with him to implement lifestyle changes like a better diet and exercise, to ensure Kelly’s safety while incarcerated.
‘The R&B singer is charged in four separate cases, all alleging he sexually abused girls and young women going back several decades.
Kelly has been held at the jail awaiting trial since last July.
In his defense, R Kelly’s lawyer argued that if he is freed, he could not flee because he would be too recognizable in Chicago, especially because of strict lockdown restrictions
US District Judge Ann Donnelly denied the singer’s request to be released from Metropolitan Correctional Center (MCC) Chicago
While she acknowledged that the disease had spread to the facility, Donnelly stressed that Kelly’s bond did not present enough evidence that the singer is uniquely at risk to contract the disease.
The 53-year-old faces several dozen counts of state and federal sexual misconduct charges in Illinois, Minnesota, and New York, from sexual assault to heading a racketeering scheme aimed at supplying him with girls.
Kelly has pleaded not guilty to all counts. In one motion filed with US District Judge Ann Donnelly last month, Kelly’s defense attorney Michael Leonard painted a harrowing picture of life behind bars amid the coronavirus pandemic marred by heightened ‘stress,’.
‘Inmates are reportedly banging on doors, walls, and windows begging for help,’ he wrote. ‘The only thing the MCC has done is lock things down, making the situation feel more like solitary confinement and possibly, because of the nature of this virus, locking in healthy inmates with those who may already have the virus but who may not yet be symptomatic.’
