R. Kelly is accusing prison staff of trying to kill him through a drug overdose that sent him to the hospital over the weekend.
In a Monday addendum to a previous emergency motion, Forbes reports, lawyers for the disgraced R&B singer claimed the overdose was part of an ongoing “plot to take Mr. Kelly’s life.”
According to court documents reviewed by People magazine, Kelly’s attorneys alleged prison staff had “administered an amount of medication that significantly exceeded a safe dose and caused Mr. Kelly to overdose, putting his life in jeopardy.”
They further claimed that prison staff members were putting Kelly’s life in danger by not treating blood clots he had complained about.
In a related motion filed earlier this month to request the “Ignition” singer be placed in home detention, his legal team alleged that members of the Federal Bureau of Prisons had enlisted a fellow inmate and leader of the white supremacist group Aryan Brotherhood to murder their client.
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A declaration included in the motion from inmate Mikeal Glenn Stine claimed three high-ranking officials offered him his freedom in exchange for the hit but that he eventually got cold feet and told Kelly about the scheme.
Stine’s credibility is questionable, however. He has filed well over 100 civil suits and petitions in federal court over the past two decades, according to People magazine.
In a response to Kelly’s motions reported by the Chicago Sun-Times, prosecutors called the accusations “fanciful” and “deeply unserious,” adding that the accusation “makes a mockery of the harm” his victims suffered.
As Kelly’s plea to be moved out of prison custody plays out, the Grammy winner’s legal team is angling for his release another way.
This month, Kelly’s lawyer, Beau Brindley, told multiple outlets he was in talks with multiple people from President Donald Trump’s team about pardoning the sex offender, who is slated to be in federal prison until 2045.
In a statement, Brindley told USA Today that he believes Trump, who has no personal connection to Kelly, is the “only person with the courage and the power to fight corruption in the prosecution of public figures and stomp it out.”
Kelly is serving 31 years in concurrent sentences after being convicted of racketeering and sex trafficking charges in New York in 2021 and was found guilty of child pornography and enticement of a minor to engage in sexual activity by a Chicago federal court in 2022.
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